Saturday 5 July 2014

Saturday.

Some people spend their weekends taking drugs, smoking joints, drinking and dancing - I've fallen into a cycle of bad habits that includes eating potato wedges and discounted family trifle, not washing the dishes and reading books in bed. The trifle had been reduced quite a lot - I now have a stinking headache. My own fault.

I just came close to losing my temper - walking the dogs home - on the opposite side of the road was a woman with a bag of shopping, a small pug type dog, and a large bulldog cross that hates me and spends all day in the window, waiting for me to pass so it can launch itself hysterically at the glass. It's a nasty brute. This idiot woman was also one of the fools who think that cheap extending type dog leads are OK. They are not. They are for selfish fuckers who can't be bothered to train or walk their dogs properly. Of course it was chaos - the brute-dog was half way across the (thankfully empty) road before the extending line ended and then pulled the woman over. Apparently it's 'my fault' for being on the other side of the road. I didn't lose my temper - mindful of the time something similar happened in Liverpool and I ended up having to sell my house to get away from the subsequent vendetta. This particular woman lives in a house where the other occupants seem to be huge steroid abusers, one man in particular looking like an angry white Mike Tyson, complete with full body tattoos and a tear on his cheek under his left eye. He always looks like he's about to tear his own face off - and so body obsessed that it's a sure thing he's a deeply conflicted latent homosexual - which makes him even more dangerous.

Last night's auction raised just under £4000.00 - which is pretty fantastic - I think all together we made a little under £10k in a month. The biggest seller was a piece by Leigh Dyer that went for nearly £900. All the local traders donated stuff, there were nearly 70 lots - ironically, and comically, the one thing that struggled to sell was a Kath Kidson bag. It eventually went for £20, £80 less than retail.

I took some time off yesterday afternoon and intended to read on the beach - I wanted something new so I spent almost an hour in Waterstone's looking for something to grab my attention - eventually I picked up a copy of John Williams 'Stoner' - out of guilt that I'm the only person I know who hasn't read it and doesn't have an opinion about it. It was even one of those books that had a little hand-written card by someone from the shop who obviously thought it was the best thing ever written. I read the notes and preface carefully - so now I already know everything about it. I'm already about a third in, and I actually feel like I've finished all the best parts. Having worked in academia (sounds great - isn't ) - there is nothing in here I haven't already crossed in real life. It's printed on absolutely beautiful paper - makes a nice change. I got carried away and bought a decent quality hard back edition with an abstract block print cover of shapes - took about 2 pages to work out that they were supposed to represent both books in a library and the bricks of prison wall.

Yesterday - I walked into town via one of the junk markets - there was a bit of noise and I saw a woman who could really best be described as 'brass' in the late '70s crime drama kind of way - straight from central casting - and quite drunk - she'd been caught trying to steal a charity box and was responding by shouting and screaming very loudly, making herself as mad and scary as possible. It worked - everyone backed off. I think it's a trick she tries all the time with much success. She was accompanied by an equally scary bloke and a pit bull on a chain, even the dog looked like something from a bad episode of The Sweeny. She was certainly younger than me - I doubt that she was even 40 - but I've never seen such human wreckage.

I'm at home tomorrow trying to be practical - and in Brighton on Monday seeing clients. I don't get paid for running about after people.

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