Grey Area

This is an extra post - specifically written to kill time on a boring rail journey.

Last night - there was a knock at the door, the specific kind of knock that really winds up the dogs and makes them hysterical. I managed to get them away from the front and closed the vestibule door behind me - and opened the front door to see a smallish, vaguely familiar man in a wooly hat. 

"Hello, I'm from Sky" he said with a cheery grin

It all came flooding back - in fact - it was EXACTLY one year ago that the same man - part of a team, knocked on the door and said the same thing. I had real problems getting rid of him last time - and when I was asked to give him one good reason why I wouldn't  subscribe ( after giving him 20 polite ones ) I offered "Fucking Murdock" - to which he said "fair enough" - look it up on here - you may remember it yourself.

This time - I was in no mood to take prisoners and started shouting at him - mostly 'NO!!!' in an increasing loud voice - still took a while to get rid of the fucker.

I'm the only person on my street without Sky - and very proud of it too. I'm thinking of putting up a notice to that effect.

On the train to Brighton, it's bloody cold. There is intermittent wireless at Eastbourne and Lewes stations, by which time I'll already know if the world had ended - or we have fallen out of one timeline into another - I had an early lunch just in case.

My replacement copy of the complete Brother Quay has arrived - so that's my Xmas entertainment sorted out. My copy of Lars and The Real Girl has vanished in the post - it seems to me that roughly 20% of all my Amazon purchases simple vanish into the ether.

I'm listening to the Last Shadow Puppets on my headphones - I bought these new - they were reduced from 50 to 15 - Sony, very good sound - but the cables are made from a special material that always gets tied into knots - something I never had with Apple - even though the sound was inferior, it's really pissing me off.

Bike chain came off half way down the big hill. That's something else to fix over xmas. I'm planning on moving everything downstairs for a few days so I can replumb and rewire the bedrooms and bathroom - have to take up all the floorboards - and varnish the bedroom floor. This means moving my bed downstairs and sleeping in the dining room, quite an adventure. Not looking forward to lugging a double mattress up and down a very narrow staircase with a twist at the end - have very grim memories of last time.

The woman next to me is sending lots of emails on her iPad - they seems to be composed totally of emoticons - she has millions of them, they are like a new pictorial language.

Just passing through Polegate - a developer seems to have built a row of small houses directly on the track - who would live there? They are using that 'knock up' system that's essentially a timber frame that goes up in 48hrs and some insulation - with a thin skin over the top - a good stiff breeze would send it flying away. They are tiny - some identical developments up by my place. Also - a very strange corner property on the site of an old pub that is designed for people with needs - about 20 small flats, each one so small that the furniture blocks the windows - and the front door opens onto a wrecked pavement which is about 18 inches wide and a very busy road. They already look 'tired' - the special coating over the cladding is pre coloured, they have not even been painted - and already look rough - fading from custard to a sickly grey. For some reason, rather than a garden - there is a small patch of livid green Astroturf - and a wheelchair bay.

Nobody has, as yet, challenged me over my decision to wear blue and green today - I think I look ace, with a red scarf and brown shoes for good measure.