Woke at 4am, the house battered by the arse end of hurricane Maureen. I don't think I'll be doing much dog walking today. Have to decide how I'm getting into town later - I'm not keen on cycling in the wind this strong - and I have a morbid fear of buses - so it looks like I'm walking. I don't mind - as long as the rain stops. I like the wind, but I'd rather not be out in it. I managed to sleep through 'The Great Storm' even though two large trees has been blown into the front of the flats I was living in at the time. I was at Royal College and walked through a deserted and devastated ( erm, that's a bit heavy... ) London - there is a photo somewhere of me in the hole left by a giant oak in Regents park.
Dentist at 8.30 - popping into the college to see if I can start moving the room around and then back home to do some work, there is plenty to get on with.
I had a frustrating and painful weekend working - repeating stuff constantly as it was changed by the client ( on a Sunday ) and having to amend files created on a different operating system and software issue than my own - with fonts that don't match mine. The old woman next door stayed in all day - probably so she didn't have to hear me screaming expletives at the top of my voice.
After the stress of another wasted weekend - I decided to vegetate in front of a TV production on iPlayer - and went for the first part of 'Appropriate Adult' - a dramatisation of the Fred West pre-trial period. I thought it was OK but took itself very seriously, and didn't really need to be made - it told us nothing, made the decision not to be sensational or exploitative ( a good call ) and was very heavy on the 'acting'. It was a bit pointless. If the subject interests you - then read the superb Gordon Burn book - 'Happy Like Murderers' which achieves the almost impossible task of treating something so extreme and horrible by being exhaustively researched, detailed, humble and respectful without resorting to sensation, horror or mawkishness. I doubt that I'll watch part 2 - I know how it ends.
The 9/11 weekend was much less uncomfortable than expected - but I don't have a telly so I probably missed the bulk of it. I have listend to endless news and current affairs programs analysing the analysis of the last ten years. I would like to think that it's an opportunity to move forward and look back on the events with a different perspective. I do remember on the day being caught up with the horror of the though 'everything has changed, nothing will ever be the same' - which is rubbish - the world is almost exactly the same as it was before - planes don't fall from the sky and people still do stupid things. The most interesting thing is how poorly the Americans have handled the physical side - the ground zero site is home to an admittedly very good memorial that focuses on loss and dumb grief - but the rebuild is a disgrace. What was originally mooted as a triumphant return to gleaming spires, and the creation of a focal point for New York is an ugly, misshapen mess of badly designed buildings, marred by infighting, professional and financial missmanagement and bruised ego. Compare to the 1930's building boom in Manhatten - and perhaps the real damage is the harm the attacks did to the American phsyche.
Oh - what do I know.
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