Journal Entries
What do you get.....
Posted Apr 10, 2003
...when you combine some old short-story ideas with a Victorian scientist locked in the basement of a mental-hospital, a man troubled by a recurring dream about an 18th-century "highwayman" figure sillhoueted against the moon, a retired policeman and committed christian taking his life in an unexpected direction and some silver metal "eggs" that make the whole thing come together?
You get "Green Fields", an idea that has been germinating in my head since that blasted depression lifted and that I am preparing to hone into a screenplay, possibly for TV. You have been warned.
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Latest reply: Apr 10, 2003
Confounded contraption!
Posted Apr 9, 2003
So there I am, turning the wheel on the filing-cabinet-on-rails setup we have for storing documents in Medical Records when I hear a scraping sound. "I don't like the sound of this", I think. I'm not wrong, there's a "shuddering" feeling and the cabinet stops moving. One of the little wheels has come off.
Eventually, some maintenance people come around and have a look at the thing. They leave it and go off elsewhere.
"Is that going to be fixed for tomorrow?" I ask.
"No", says a colleague, "they need to send the people round from the manufacturers before it's fixed. Could be a while."
Health and Safety means we can't even get access to those parts of the cabinet "opened" in case it topples (as it has done before).
Most of my job involves putting away files from Front Filing.
So, it looks like my job description for the foreseeable future might be "sitting drinking coffee, drawing cartoons of comedy anarchists with bombs (don't ask) and occasionally putting away a file that *isn't* from Front Filing".
Meanwhile, the never-ending flow of files coming into the office will continue. 
On the plus side, yesterday we had to get into the canteen via fire-escape. Now, suffering from a very bad fear of heights as I do, I wasn't too enamoured at having to use the external fire-escape with it's see-through floor. However, I managed it and I managed it without being bothered too much. Maybe the old fear of heights is receding. In November of 2001 I went to see Jack Dee at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and found out the seats were in the "gallery". Other punters were greatly amused by my "holding the sides of the seats with white knuckles, staggering down the isle gingerly and sweating" performance as I made my way to my seat. It would be nice change. Still can't imagine I'd handle a glass lift too well though 
.
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Latest reply: Apr 9, 2003
The Meet!
Posted Apr 8, 2003
About time I got round to mentioning that Meet thing 
It was smaller than I expected, but it was nice to see some old faces again and be introduced to some new ones. The Scottish Crown Jewels looked "expensive", the Stone of Destiny looked, erm, like a bit of stone (but it's oor bit of stone!), the view from the castle battlements over Edinburgh somehow didn't make me curl up into a ball and hide (I have a fear of heights) and it was generally a good day out.
Oh, and then there were the pubs. The barman refused to give me a large Orgasm for £11 (it's a cocktail!), I snogged a male researcher as part of Truth or Dare (and I suggested it ), I kept my promise to myself not to get too drunk and I got myself an h2g2 pen. Huzzah! 
Oh, and thanks to DD and FC for providing me with sofa-space (and toast) in their tiny flat after DoctorGonzo proved unobtainable. 
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Latest reply: Apr 8, 2003
Another one bites the dust
Posted Apr 4, 2003
I went out for a drink last night in Glasgow's pleasant but slightly too-trendy Ashton Lane. After leaving the pub (having got my bag back, which I'd foolishly left at a friend's last Saturday 
) I noticed something was "wrong". There was building-site barriers erected across the road and the half-ruined shell of a massive building.
It suddenly occurred to me that it was the old Grosvenor Cinema. The facade had been removed and the large interior was exposed and had plainly been gutted. I couldn't see anything left that was recognisable as the cinema.
I saw a whole bunch of films there since I moved to Glasgow and have loads of memories of standing around outside it, waiting for someone to turn up and reading all the film posters. It closed down for "refurbishment" what feels like an age ago and I'd forgotten to even check if it had ever re-opened. Now it seems to be gone for good.
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Latest reply: Apr 4, 2003
I don't need this
Posted Apr 2, 2003
It's 20 minutes past two in the morning and my main instinctive feeling is that I need to go for a long walk.
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Latest reply: Apr 2, 2003
Mister Matty
Researcher U181271
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