Journal Entries
Stone cold sober again
Posted Nov 9, 2001
I can't remember the last time I was drunk all day long. I do recall being drunk the whole weekend in 1980 when West Ham won the FA cup, but I'm sure I must have done it since then 
The problem for me now is that the bad hangovers I used to get then are even worse these days. Sometimes it seems as if a mere sniff of the barmaid's apron will have my head pounding next day, and my mouth feeling like it's been swabbed out with Bernard Manning's underwear. I like to crack open a bottle of beer when I get home from work, but as for going on a spree, I just don't do that sort of thing any more... and you know what? I don't miss it. I guess that kind of thing happens as you grow older.
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Latest reply: Nov 9, 2001
I'm becoming more Texan
Posted May 17, 2001
Today, for the first time since I moved here, I said "Howdy" to someone. It feels quite natural, and doesn't sound as ridiculous as you might think with a London accent.
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Latest reply: May 17, 2001
How strange
Posted Apr 12, 2001
Just last night I was thinking about the (so I thought) remaining two Goons - Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe, and figuring that Spike would most likely the first of the two to drop off the twig, having been in questionable health since an illness some years ago which almost killed him, and the fact that he's the older of the two. Then, blow me down, I'm sitting here this morning trawling through the BBC news website when I come upon the report of Harry Secombe's death, and moments later I hear a clip from a Goon Show on NPR's Morning Edition, which was on the radio alarm in the bedroom because they were doing a piece about.... Harry Secombe's death. I don't believe that stuff like this has a 'meaning', it's simply a coincidence, and I write about it because it's been too long since I put an entry in my journal.
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Latest reply: Apr 12, 2001
Keeping things meteorological
Posted Dec 17, 2000
We had an ice storm here this week. I've never seen one of those before - where I come from, rain falls as snow when it gets cold. A huge mass of very cold Arctic air came down from the north, and the preceeding front passed through here at around 3pm on Monday, pushing temperatures down by 30F in as many hours, and even further by nightime. Tuesday was very cold (for these parts), barely making it above freezing all day, but that evening a Pacific front came in from the west and brought some precipitation with it. Instead of falling as snow, it fell as almost feezing rain, which froze on contact with anything it touched, turning streets into skating rinks, and covering trees and power lines with extra pounds of weight, many of which couldn't take it and came down. On my way to work on Wednesday morning I saw several branches that had come crashing down (some pretty darn big ones too), and when I got to work there was no electricity at the store. The clock had gone off at 2.25am (or was it 3.45?), and when I left early at 2pm, the power still hadn't been restored. I found out later that it came back on at 3.30pm. Now, the thing is, this 'storm' paralysed the whole of the city (Austin highways dept. isn't exactly stiff with gritting lorries), unneccessarily as it turned out. On Tuesday evening the local news bulletins were giving out lists of schools, offices, and larger businesses which were going to be closed until noon on Wednesday (by which time the ice should have melted), and many smaller businesses no doubt did the same, but when my wife left for work at about 6.30am, the ice had already melted anyway! My ride in to work that morning was a breeze because half of the people weren't there! There was almost no traffic on the roads, and the bus was almost empty. My boss, who is from here but who spent 10 years in Minnesota was telling us stories of how he had to open the store he worked at when there had been a two foot fall of snow, how he got there at the usual time, and how there were already people waiting to come in at 9am. And Texans have the nerve to call themselves tough? Pshaw!!!
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Latest reply: Dec 17, 2000
No Twister... phew!
Posted Oct 23, 2000
The storm passed, and I'm still here, but I was more than a little unnerved for a while 
. There was some rain like I've never seen in my life (not even that time on the M6 just south of Manchester), and some hail, but if there was a tornado, it must have dissipated before the storm got here. Before I came here, my wife assured me that tornados just don't come this far south - omitting to mention that the town of Jarrell is only 40 miles north of here, where in 1997 one of the worst tornado for years (an F5!) flattened the town and killed several people. I'm going to go and learn the words to "Oh God Our Help in Ages Past" now, I might just need them because this weather isn't done yet!
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Latest reply: Oct 23, 2000
There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho
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