“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

No pictures, no jokes today. I feel horrible. For whatever reason, one of the few good friends I have is no more, there's nothing funny to be said about that. I feel awful.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one” - C.S. Lewis

"The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese"

Back pain - gone.
Okay there's a hint of a niggle, but so what!

What an absolutely awful 13 hour shift today! one of those days where the admissions are endless and unrelenting! (actually aren't they the same thing?)

Back held out though - I'm all right - woo hoo!

"It all started with a scowl" - priceless!

Sorry for this stream of consciousness, I am slightly drunk, and strangely happy!

Many people quit looking for work when they find a job. - Steven Wright

“If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten”

Blimey, I suppose I should tell the tale of the assembly shouldn't I? Clean forgot!
No tears, from me or anyone, parent or child. I arrived long before my ex. It over ran, so she sped out back to work (lord of leisure yours truly was on a day off of course!) so confrontation was avoided.
The assembly itself was a bought in jobbie, and was so inconsistent with school life here (I think it was American in origin) that it was jarringly odd. My daughter had a good part as a stressed teacher. To illustrate this stress some brilliant teacher used The Boomtown Rats song "I don't like Mondays" as background music, clearly not aware the lyrics are referring to a school massacre! Luckily I think I was the only one steeped in pop culture enough to realise, but my daughter did ask me later why I had looked so shocked at that scene!

It was her last day in Junior School yesterday and I haven't seen her yet, wonder how it went? Stay tuned.

This post ends with a voice over (read whilst playing above video)

“Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what's to come. But that night, I think we knew it was time to let go of what had been, and look ahead to what would be. Other days. New days. Days to come. The thing is, we didn't have to hate each other for getting older. We just had to forgive ourselves... for growing up.”

- The Wonder Years

“Style is a simple way of saying complicated things”

Feeling a lot better today! plus the weather is lovely.
The only problem with that is it shows up the dirt more! Must try and tidy, but not today, I don't want to send myself "back" to square one! (do you see the pun I made? do you see?)

I'm feeling so much better today that I went out and bought a couple of DVDs ( I was getting withdrawal symptoms man!).

It's my daughter's leaving assembly tomorrow (she leaves Junior school on Friday). I know if I don't go I'll regret it, but it means avoiding my ex-wife. If we had an amicable relationship that would be nice, but from day one she made it clear she wanted nothing further to do with me, although she still has a close relationship with my wages. Also I'll no doubt get all emotional!

This is the video I really wanted but you'll have to click on this link to see it - bummer!

That's just as good (if you're as old as me anyway!)

“It is not I who become addicted, it is my body.” - Jean Cocteau

(Director of one of my favourite films "La Belle et la bête")

Serenity now!

I have nothing interesting to say...

(So no change there, you are probably thinking.)

I spent a lot of today dozing. For someone with insomnia I seem to be sleeping an awful lot. When I'm in bed my back pain seems to disappear.
I've watched an incredible number of Seinfeld episodes on DVD today (well I was stuck in me armchair with a lot of cushions!) Love that show!

I love an electrical storm, we had a brief one today, and lots of sunshine. Has the weather become bi-polar?

"I can't go to a bad movie by myself. What, am I gonna make sarcastic remarks to strangers?" - Jerry Seinfeld

“Never give advice in a crowd - Arabian Proverb”

p.s. My computer chair has a built in vibrate/heat thing, which I thought would help when I got in from work this morning. I nearly crippled myself getting down on the floor trying to plug the damn thing in (I never use it - it's too noisy and the neighbours minds probably boggle trying to figure out what I'm doing!), anyway I sit down (kind of) and switch on (you're ahead of me aren't you?) and the damn thing blows up. Needless to say I had no trouble standing up that one time! (no mystery - I'd connected the wrong DC adapter, and the darn thing is only 3 months old!!)

For any Napoleon Dynamite fans

“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.” - Oscar Wilde

"Jack Bauer got Helen Keller to talk"

I'm afraid any wit I usually have, has left on a short holiday, whilst Mr. Back pain is in town.
However thanks to the wonders of painkillers and some deep heat stylee cream my Dad supplied, I bring you this evenings Magnum Opus.
I only managed an hour! at work today. I was so uncomfortable during the handover, I broke out in a cold sweat (remember that time I burst into tears during the handover? - of course you don't, I've never mentioned it before) and couldn't concentrate on what was being said. Once more I broke my own personal worst time for walking home, what is essentially a ten minute walk took at least twice that. Hey I'm not complaining though, not in the light of last weeks "Sicko" viewing, I just thought the whole escapade was mildy amusing and pathetic in equal parts. Socks and shoes remain a problem though, at least the "getting them bloody on" part.

Men (always men - the idiot of the species) who wander around supermarkets, or queue in the post office (presumably for one first class stamp) whilst wearing bluetooth headsets. Do they think they are a top gun pilot or covert agent? Do they realise they look utterly, irredeemably, and childishly stupid? Is that call from the wife (no doubt driving her 4 litre "ranchero", "samurai", "outlaw" or "Ford macho stereotype" SUV to pick up little Briony from school half a mile away) reminding him to pick up some unsmoked bacon and a pint of milk, such a matter of importance that the two seconds saved not picking up a phone, and the appearances of being a total simpleton are worth it?

Of course they think they're Jack Bauer !

“The only thing that ever consoles man for the stupid things he does is the praise he always gives himself for doing them.” - Oscar Wilde

New Garbage single out today! (although being on the Radio 2 "C" playlist means it won't be troubling the charts anytime soon)

Mrs. Peel - We're needed!

In inconsequential news :
Pity poor Billy. Rather than get better, as promised by a brief respite on Thursday gone, my back is actually worse today, I think the strain of limping has set the whole lower back into spasm, I should have stayed off the whole week and rested. You can't get a quick fix for these things.

It just occurred to me that I haven't watched a thing on TV this week. I always record "The Avengers" on BBC4 (PVR's are great aren't they?) but since I have them on DVD already that doesn't count does it?
Current British TV output just doesn't interest me at all. Ok I'll probably be watching Heroes on the BBC, but it is an American show, like all my current favourites. Brit TV just seems to lack a certain spark and inventiveness at the moment.

Returning to my back briefly, all those chores I should have been doing this week go undone (since I can't really bend down - you really should have seen the slapstick routine I went through getting my socks on this morning!). Whilst this wouldn't usually bother me, my impending house guest might not like it!!

p.s. I just remembered I did watch the new series of "Still Game" on BBC2 - I love that show, love it!

"On the other hand, you have different fingers" - Steven Wright

"I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long"

I've said it before , but it's a great time to be young. Pop Culture (and nostalgia) is booming and you can dress how the hell you want, and no-one bats an eye-lid. This is good but it also reveals that there is no current style or movement that future generations will draw on. Can you imagine someone in 2047 longing for the nostalgic days of now, in the same way I have fond yearnings for 1967 (or to quote myself, my idealised modern view of it, after people were still poor, unhealthy, immoral and stupid, just with more style!)

My local town centre consists of mostly endless bars and clubs (plus pound shops!). They (..er not the pound shops , obviously) usually have ridiculous "poncey" names referencing Bergman or Kurosowa films, da-daism, French cafe society or Dorothy Parker (OK - not really). Anyway for the average North-East punter they might as well be called "get drunk here", "girls girls girls", "low moral standards" or "pissed" (ever seen John Carpenter's "They Live"? - if so you'll know what I mean). The decor only seems to come in two flavours - ultra-modern (which means shiny but totally lacking in comfort or soul) and ultra-traditional ("olde worlde" and ultra dull). One bar I've seen (but not been in I might add) has a quite wonderful Roy Lichenstein influenced interior, with huge reproductions of his most famous works. I know I'm being a snob but I suspect the average clientèle remain ignorant to the concept of Pop Art.

“I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul.” - J.G. Ballard

Shirley Manson will return

“A man profits more by the sight of an idiot than by the orations of the learned”

I am not dead - I've had real problems with my back the last few days and my computer chair wasn't helping. However today I am chock full 'o' analgesic goodness, so it's back to the inane stuff.

Isn't it satisfying pulling up at traffic lights behind some nugget who zoomed off at the previous junction? There are certain types of people who think that the highway code just doesn't apply to them. They all seem to drive the same "types" of car (you know who you are) or a beat up egg beater, but in the back of their minds , they know they "should" be driving something flashier. So BMW, 4x4, Audi, Mercedes, Mini Cooper, any convertible (usually with playboy accesories) Subaru drivers, we salute you, may your appointment with a lampost be soon.

"Marriage is like a besieged castle; those who are on the outside wish to get in; and those who are on the inside wish to get out" - Arabian proverb

“He who sees the calamity of other people finds his own calamity light”

I'm still off today - hobbling around in my dressing gown.
I stumbled across Michael Moore's new Film "Sicko" on Google video (see link) - amazingly it is available to watch, free and in it's entirety.
Well, although I'm still in pain, and a bit debilitated, I certainly don't feel sorry for myself any more! Moore may have his critics, but this film makes me proud of being British, I never thought I'd say that.

Moore's (not quite spontaneous - aimed more at driving home the point home to Middle America I suspect) surprise at the lack of charges in the NHS, was amusing. However I wish he'd asked a few Nurses about their pay and lifestyles, I suspect the Audi driving GP, with the £500,000 Greenwich house, may not be entirely representative of NHS employees.

The finale in Cuba had me in tears - seriously!

A great film, and of course it was biased and opinionated , but I believe all his facts check out - go watch it now :

"Sicko" link (the whole movie, legal and free, honest!)

Check the facts on Michael Moore's website

Ouch! the pain!!!

“No man is a good physician who has never been sick” - Arabian proverb

"So wear your hair in bunches"

It's me Geoff! - Marty!

Pathetic ain't I?

I had to come home from work again, poorly!
Not diarrhoea this time, no that painful back/hip of mine. (dating back to an injury a long time ago - I believe I mentioned it earlier) I'm like an old man in all respects except... er none, really.

That means I've had to sit perfectly still all day just watching DVDs - hang on that's an average day, hang on, I've said that before, hang on ... ad nauseum.

It was a beautiful sunny day, but It took me an age to limp home. Worryingly there was a relatively young fella in front of me limping and with a stick, and I worried that if I passed him, limping on the right like him, he may think I was taking the mickey. Thankfully I was so slow the issue never arose!

I was listening to the new 'Manic Street Preachers' single and I really like theses lyrics, so much so that I'm making them my quote for the day ! exciting eh? you'd think I'd put the youtube clip here wouldn't you?

Now baby, what've you done to your hair?
Is it just the same time of year?
When you think that you don't really care
Oh baby, what have you done to your hair?

Wear your eyes as dark as night
Paint your face with what you like
Wear your love like it is made of hate
Born to destroy, and born to create

“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything” - Voltaire

Oh dear, I knocked over my lava lamp and it's spoiled. A quick google search shows that mathmos don't make replacement bottles for my model anymore, exciting stuff eh?

In the end I didn't buy a TV or a Computer, I just can't make decisions, can I? Well can I? can I?

“Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!” - William Butler Yeats

"Come quietly or there will be... trouble!"

Just stopping by!

Mysteriously my burglar alarm started working again a few minutes ago, 48 hours after it's malfunction, can't be long for this world then? My back (actually more hip really) continues to give me jip (is that how you spell jip?). It all goes back to a fall I had at work a long time ago, on a wet floor (no sign!). These days I would probably get a cheque for £8000 and my own TV advert, but it was about 10 years ago before these litigious times.

Dilemma - I am in desperate need of a new PC (my geriatric computer is three years old for goodness sake!). However I'd really like a new TV too. I can only afford one, and it'll be years before I can afford the other, so I'm currently humming and hawing (is that an expression?). Whatever I buy, it'll almost certainly be replaced by a better, faster, and cheaper model , within hours of my purchase.

“My first rule of consumerism is never to buy anything you can't make your children carry.” - Bill Bryson

“It doesn't matter what temperature the room is, it's always room temperature.”

I am in a bad, bad mood. Stand by for miserabilism.
You know I have tinnitus, and I cannot sleep without the radio. The radio suddenly stopped at 6am and it woke me up. To cut a long story short, there had been a power cut, and when the power was restored, off went my burglar alarm, for hours, until I figured out how to disconnect it! (plus my back is playing up, so I was limping to work in the rain, with an unprotected house!). Boo Hoo.

The worst was yet to come however. Simply during the handover, we had blood up the walls in one side room, and an arrest in a bay. Two cases of diarrhoea followed (that's patients not me!) plus a succession of rude and "in yer face" relatives. Listen lady, if your son has chosen to drink so much that his pancreas has turned to mush, and then he chooses to discharge himself, how exactly is that MY fault? Then admission after admission, I've dished out so much morphine today.
I could go into further details of other incidents but the need for brevity and confidentiality stops me right here.

(Ah! Christmas 1981, a wonderful time)

“I was at this restaurant. The sign said "Breakfast Anytime." So I ordered French Toast in the Renaissance.” - Steven Wright

“When red-haired people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn”

Yes it's happened again! It's haircut time, and sorry to go over this once more , but "it wasn't what I asked for!".
This time I was very explicit (oooh er!) about what I wanted, rather than the vague murmurings I usually proffer. Yet revealed 15 minutes later, not the tousled stoner dude look I was going for, but a fair approximation of Professor Snape, at least in his Alan Rickman incarnation! Ho hum!

The one thing certain about the weather at the moment is nothing, er so that's potentially lots of things I suppose. Changeable isn't it? In a 3 mile car journey yesterday, I experienced "four seasons in a day" or summat, I'm not feeling very lucid tonight, and no, alcohol has not been involved, although that sounds like an excellent idea!

I watched "Willard" today, starring Crispin Glover, what a weird and wonderful guy.

“Eccentric doesn't bother me. 'Eccentric' being a poetic interpretation of a mathematical term meaning something that doesn't follow the lines - that's okay.” - Crispin Glover