05.29.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
I ended up having to take my injured feet to hospital. The burst blistered got a bit infected and started to smell bad (worse than just feet that is), so I went and had the sorted by the hospital. Looking much better now.
Just been trawling though my old machine (now my parents machine) and ran across a photo of my ex I’d forgotten about. Heart felt that slight paniced flutter, but it passed.
Tomorrow I face the second worst horror in the UK, travelling across the country by train. Down it is fine. Up it is fine. Across is like licking piss of a nettle. Only more boring.
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05.28.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
And so begins the final stretch - the last leg - the run for home. Luckily my ticket to newcastle was accepted - so I get to do the first bit of the journey 1st class, with wireless access (currently reading up on the spontanius combusting gummy bear - myth or terrorfying reality) - have decided to set the journey to Closer by Joy Division.
Possibly a off choice - will adjust as needed.
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05.27.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
Since Hurting Foot Disaster of 2005 (my little toe has no skin on it - do not ignore blisters!) I spent yesterday in and around the hostel. I did go over Brookley Bridge, and went graffitti hunting, but didnt find much.
Today i leave at 2:30pm. Its quite sad really - I’ve kinda fallen in love with New York. Im not a big fan of cities - or America really at times - but this town is brilliant! If you coulod live somehwere like Nolita it would be brilliant. I suspect I cant afford to live down there though.
Today is sunny, and shiny, and very metro (Im now considering that a verb), I’ve just had an email from somebody who stayed in the hostel, and I spent the night underneath two Swedish girls called Anna. (Not to confused readers: They were both called Anna. Aparently its a very goood Swedish name.) They had the bunk ab ove, which is the least exciting ending I can put on that story - but the mkost truthful.
So - back to the UK. And Slimfast. And cups of proper tea. And trains. And crappy weather. I wonder how my seedlings are doing?
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05.26.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
I will go and see this and for my own benefit it is here
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05.25.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
Theres a great place called Used Books, which foolishly has been included in the Lonely Planet. It stocks a wealth of used books (surprise surprise) and a half decent cup of coffee, and a killer peacan pie. A really really good peacan pie.
So- here i am, surounded by artist, poets, wankers, etc etc, typing on my iBook, blogging infact, sipping tea (I wish I could get Englishman in New York out of my head - but I cant) and they’ve got Pink Floyds The Wall on the stereo. Its cool, but I suspect it definatly puts me in the “tosser” catagory.
That said - I’d just found a comic book by the guy who writes Simpsons and it was only $3, so many I’ll make a bit on ebay. And I got a cookery book, and a few other bits and pieces. I might have to buy a new bag to get this all back to the UK.
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
I’ve just found a strange little roof garden (having failed to find the pub where Im meeting the others.) I was hoping itwould have free wireless access - but no luck. Its somewhere on 40th
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
Antoher day, another art gallery. I cant say that I know a damned thing about art, classical or modern. I’ve had no lessons, read no book, listerned to very little discussion on the facts, but I have now visited numerous famous galleries around the world, and maybe its just that some of them do what they do very well, but some are definatly musch better than others.
So - the guggenheim - and amazing building, in fact I would rate the building from the inside as one of my favorites. From the outside it looks a little bit like a sad seaside structure, possibly somehwere in Whitley bay. From the inside it is definatly a building whic (WARNING:entering artistic nonsense mode) defines the space itself, giving rise to emotions and feeling. (/leavong arty crap mode). I think its just that its big, and round, and has a funky pink and clear glass ceiling.
The actual art in it - not really my thing. I like your man with his vertical stripes. I think my mum would like those too. The “non object art of the future” (circca 1960) was mostly unappealiong crap. Lines and circles, faded colours and a lot of paint. Did nothing for me really.
Its strange how New York has shiny places (5th avenue) which are amazingly expencive, but have some really downtrodden crap on them. Theres a really grimy barbers, much like those that can be found in the cheap bits of UK cities. I think it was wedged next to Gucci. The streeets are awash with people handing out flyers for upmarket shops, but are themsleves dressed like himeless people (hey - maybe they are homeless people and this is sime sort of amazing charity effort - I’d love to think it was - but I doubt it). Its a world of juxtipositions.
Last night, admitadly slightly drunk, I was introduced to Pho (said “Fa”) which is grewat stuff. Vietnamiese I think, its a broth (stock pretty much) which cooked chicken (or beef etc) chunks in, noodles, beansprouts, lime and corriander (which the US has another name for). You add in hotsause and hoi sin, and its bloody great. Perfect slightly drunken food. I shall investigate when I get back.
The ever cute Ali left this morning at 5am. Shame - she seemed lovely. She was flying standby and was back at work today - Wednesdays are never my favorite day - but I’m guessing that this one would have been crap 
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
The Stannon Island ferry is brilliant. Its free (appealing to the tight git in me), it sails past the statue, which is actually quite beutiful. Its funny, I thought it would be quite cheesy, but it was actually quite pretty. Its a nice shade of green too.
I took a fairly roundabout route to get to it - passing by the site of the twin towers. It was strangly unemotional - its just a building site. Had nothing on the photos in MoMA yesterday.
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05.24.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
Telling it like it is…
“Oliver likes to communicate expressively in e-mails so although this keeps an air of realism in the team, he may need to reword this if mails are likely to be forwarded to client staff.”
aka
“This man tells it like it is, and does not tollerate bullshit. Client would appreciate this, but I suspect the rest of the cpmany may not.”
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
I woke up late. I generally hate wasting a day when I’m off seeing somewhere new - but I obviously needed the sleep. I also had room mateslast night - Edgar and Ali, bith 26 and both from Cali’. We ended up heaidng out looking for food and, surprise surprise, we ended up in an irish pub. The real surprise was when it was actually staffed by a an Irishman. Not a bad burger either.
So - I’ve wandered down through China town (Speak of wandering Ali has a tshirt with “WanderLuster” on it, with I might steal the slogan from). China towns through out the western world are much the same, but NYC’s is pretty cool. Amazing range of fish, crabs, lobster, welks, etc etc. Many of the thrashing around in tanks under the woodern tressle tbales, old women poking the fish on the ice to see if any of them still wiggle. I also found the Red Dragon Extermination Company, the imagry that counjours up.
So - once I’ve got my email checked (Starbucks - grrr - free wireless - yay) I’m on my way down to the Statue of Liberty. First I need to figure out where the hell I am though. Somewhere south of Midtown, possibly slighly eEast of the central line of the island.
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05.23.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
the last two posts have been submitted from Bryant Park which has free wireless access provided by those nice kids at google.com
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
I have never had what anybody would describe as pretty feet. In fact my uncle once telling me “you have ugly feet boy!” in a manner that was far less Dickensien than that sounds when I write it down (he was at this point so far from sober that it was unreal - I had just dragged him away form the dance tent at his sons wedding with him proclaiming “its my song damn it!” about the Rocky Horror Show’s Timewarp).
Of late my feet have taken a serious battering, mostly from days in formal dress shoes, and walking a million and one miles in the name of touristic devotion to downtown Chicago. The upshot of this was that I went and bought some fizzing bath tablets in a feble affempt to bring them back under some form of biological order. A badly torn big toe nail was looking somewhat gunky and slimy - not the best start to a week of wet weather on foot.
These large green flakey tablets are aboutthe size of a Rolo, and a glance at the ingredients tells me that I could knock them up for about a tenth of the price and that they will probably do no good what-so-ever but a boy must try these things. Which brings me round to finding myself standing with one foot in a basin of red hot water, somehwere in midtown Manhatten, missing my grandfather.
Maybe it was something to do with the slightly medicinl smell (something like Olbas Oil, but not quite), or the pale green colour of the water, becuase it was nothing to do with being in New York (he was a Welshman), or bad feet (to the best of my knowledge grandpa’s feet were fine). I thing it must be something to do this my grandparents bathroom, which had a shelf and a cupboard so full of ungments and oiltments, ranging from hydo-creams and old style razor blades, to Tiger Balm (which I never did work out what it was for), I seem to remember that it had a slightly minty/wintergreeny smell.
My dad was once told that he was a true gentleman (which I beleive him to be), and he replied “Im not, but my father is” (which I believe unfalteringly). I didnt get a chance to tell my grandfather my exam results, or that I got into university, or even that I had a job before university (I started that job with “Hi - Im Oli - can I have Thursday off for a funeral”). At the end of what was one of the crappiest years of my life, my relationship with my dad took on a different feel. I think we were friends from that point on.
Thats coming up for 6 years ago, and much water has passed under the bridge since then. Many battle fought, won and lost. Several highs, and a few lows, and as the Libertines said “the highs and low, the too’s and frow’s , they made me dizzy”. They say that smell is the sense most closely related to memory, and I can quite believe it now. It that, or those fizzy bath tablets were better than I thought
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
The US has many things to recomend it. I love their enthusiasm. They’re wonderfully polite all the time. They have national pride (damn it there are so many flags it is unbelieveable). They have an incredible “yeah - lets do it” attitude that the UK could do well to learn from. They really do believe half the crap that they spout.
The US also has a wide range of things that it would do well to notice. Bigger is not always better! You don’t have to keep up with the Jones. Other peoples opinions are just as valid. You cannot keep consuming the world resources at the rate that you are because we are running out, fast.
There are numerous examples the US doing what the US does best - making big things. The are 4×4’s (SUV’s) out here that make everything in the UK look small. The Ford Ka, a masterpiece of small and economic engineering, isn;t even available over here. Aparently nobody would want one. They have Mini’s (the new ones - with a 2litre engine rather than the uk’s 1.8).
Friday night I and a couple of friends, wanfered for an hour and a half to KFC. When in Rome and all that. A “family mega bucket” came with enough food for 4 of us easily - in fact - we didn’t finish it. The coke (sorry - Pepsi) came ibn a HALF GALLON bucket. It had its own handle, becuase you couldn’t hold it in one hand becuase of the weight deforming the paper in your hand. TRhe number of caleries in the bucket of chicken, we estimated at over 22k. Thats enough for a full gown man for 9 days.
Im sure this country will redeam itself eventually. I love so many things about it, but the sheer volume of sugar enhanced, artifically coloured, double sized, express-while-you-wait-drive though culture, is making me feel defiled. Im starting to feel like that film of grease you find clinging to the wall behind your cooker.
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05.21.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
This is being posted from inside the apple stone in Chicago!
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05.19.05
Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
Chicago gots amazing thunder - absolutly amazing. The sky has gone black, and the sky is cracking like a shotgun. A love thunderstorms, but some people dont. Another thing to add to the “silly thing that make me sad” list.
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
You couldn’t make it up.
The world’s first fax machine was patented in 1843 by Alexander Bain. He came from a remote croft in Caithness in Scotland and, for his early experiments, used cattle jaw bones for hinges and heather for springs. His fax machine was based on an electric clock, which he had also invented
Taken from The Secret Life of Machines
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
I love books. I love free things. I love free books!
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
Having listened to corporate rubbish for 2 weeks this is far more amusing.
Think from outside the box.
Collapse the box and take a fucking sharp knife to it.
Leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.
Spray the paint sparingly onto the stencil from a distance of 8 inches.
Be aware that going on a major mission totally drunk out of your head will result in some truly spectacular artwork and at least one night in the cells.
Banksy speaks
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
‘The Peckham Rock’ is genius.
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Posted in randomosity at 12:00 am by coldclimate
I now officially love randomurl.com
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