July 2, 2012
June 30, 2012
June 29, 2012
Notes from a day out in Shoreham and Worthing
handkerchiefs on heads
Digging for bait
Sea bass
Lugworm
crab
industrial coast
dog with stone in mouth
National Coastwatch
Double decker bus runs along shore
Light aircraft
Mainwaring’s men gazing out to sea
Dirty white topped sandbrown waves
Lone kayak
Powereq windsurfers
Masts
Xcite ride
Mr Seafood fresh seafood stall
Istanbul Turkish & Mediterranean restaurant
Tangerine Bar
M&S, Costa, Monsoon, RBS
The Denton Bar & Dining Room
Molloy’s Ice Cream, Rock, Confectionery, Cold Drinks
Straw hats buckets and spades
Portrait of queen
The Spyglass Inn
Modern building
Quality Seafood & Local Produce
Cornish & Sussex Real Ales
Macaris Ice Cream Bar
Tropicana Café Bar
Gold Rush
£1 stake wins £3
Golden Bonanza
2 Penny Falls
Crompton’s
Whittaker’s Roulette
Coins grubby to the touch
2 p decadence – 3rd world
Turn corner & wind hits
Concrete balls
Vintage tea rooms at the Dome
Looks nice but no room and can’t tell if they do fish and chips
Connaught Corner House restaurant
Haddock freshly landed on the beach at Worthing though I didn’t sea any fish being caught
Easy to let imagination be caught by the romance of the sea
Somewhat anaemic looking people sat opposite – Methodists I’d say
Couple sat with them – she had a bit of a downy lip
Widows conversation
I gave him the ring back
Bespectacled rhinoceri and other lyrical waxings
lyrical waxing
trumpet case
eveready battery
double bass
mantelpiece maniac
what’s the score
watercolour margin
piano more
bespectacled rhinoceri
saxophone
light emitting diode
treble tone
golden photo shoot
alpine horn
coils of curly cable
bagpipes born
baskerville old face
signature tune
bedtime story
drum down dune
June 23, 2012
Life on Worthing pier
We passed each other walking in opposite directions. She was on the phone broadcasting loudly to anyone who wanted to listen.
“I’m homeless, I’ve nowhere to live, I’ve lost all my clothes, I’ve managed to save some of yours.”
She walked on, I walked on. That was it. There is no more to say.
June 18, 2012
the rare summer
I came up from my own world
for the rare summer,
pleasant scented breeze
made evening perfect,
lifted my clear head and strolled
until I met nobody,
close to the longest day.
June 16, 2012
Bred for beauty
The flowers were tied to the railing. There were several bunches but they were all fading now. Someone didn’t make it. It made me pause where once a pause could have meant life.
The flowers disguised numbness and despair. Picked for innocence. Bred for beauty, delicate radiance.
I walked on. I played no part in this.
The break in the trees
There is a road – it can’t be seen from where I’m sat but I know it is there.
I can see the break in the trees.
If I work hard I can picture two millennia of travellers making their way along the path
Through the break in the trees.
In other circumstances it might have been a river but it is not, although there is a lake
Surrounded by trees.
The countryside is green now – it is the middle of June and it has been a particularly wet spring.
The trees too are green,
Enjoying their short burst of growth before the colours change and fade
And the trees grow stoic.
But for now they are in full leaf and the cars race by on their way somewhere else and oblivious to the fact
That the trees are there, always.
They line the horizon, wet, wind-brushed and painted and make me pause and think because of
The break in the trees.
Ingrediunts for chickkin caserole
Chikkin
Uniuns
Chikkin stok pot
Tind tomatos
Beycun
Mushrumes
Pepur
Potatos
Ingrediunt X
Lotsa lurve
June 3, 2012
rainy downtown days
It’s raining invisible rain. I can’t see it but I can hear it. This is one of those “got things to do but they are mostly outdoor jobs and I’m taking my time to do the few indoor ones” days. The indoor jobs include buying some new light bulbs from Tesco which involves going outdoors but I’m cool about that. I will be wearing a coat, waterproof, Goretex. That last bit is important because it should ensure that I stay dry at all times when moving between indoor bits. As dry as I need to be anyway. Not sure about my specs and I don’t care about the legs because I’m wearing shorts and sandals – the essential British summer gear I’d say. To finish off I’m sorry about the post title because it is a bit deceptive. I’m not actually downtown. It just sounded better than say rainy suburban days. Right I’m off to Tesco.
May 15, 2012
The Third Law Part 11 – Easyjet living
I’m on an EasyJet flight from Luton Aipowt to Berlin. Sat quite comfortably on a front row aisle seat having forked out £20 for speedy boarding. Worth every penny. In fact had I forked out £12.50 in advance I could have been sat in the ServisAir Executive lounge before hand. As it is I spent most of the waiting time eating lunch and doing emails and still left enough juice on my laptop battery for the whole flight ahead of me.
We were 20 minutes late taking off. 5 persons had made last minute decisions not to travel which meant that 5 bags had to be retrieved from the hold. You wonder whether one of them had a premonition. The real reason is almost certainly mundane. Bad back suddenly got worse, phobia about flying returned, straightforward family argument (again!), etc etc etc. I stuck in three etc’s there but in reality I couldn’t think of any more reasons on the spur of the moment, which was almost certainly the way they decide not to travel – on the spur of the moment that is – it’s unlikely that they had taken a lot of time to think about this or they would probably not have bothered checking their bags in. I will never know their fate and tb quite h not in the least way concerned.
Whilst in “departures” at the airport I purchased a copy of the Daily Telegraph for £1.20. This was only to (more…)
May 12, 2012
The manflu epidemic
They fell where they sat
settee, armchair or bed
the sickness took them
aspirin soon exhausted
bottles of Lucozade
scattered empty and liberally
on the floor around them
face cloth doused in water
but long run dry
falls off the forehead
and is not replaced
the victims fall in
and out of sleep
left alone for long
periods of up to
fifteen minutes
whilst their partners
selfishly get on
with the housework
May 7, 2012
The old man and the handcart – Lincoln municipal tip, Great Northern Terrace
We were driving down to the tip at Great Northern Terrace and passed an old man pushing a handcart. All we had was an old carpet. The handcart was piled high with what looked like bits of an old boiler with its steel chimney. He held a steady pace – looked as if he must have been pretty fit.
He belonged in a Hovis advert really, with his flat cap firmly on his head and a look of determination on a timeworn face. I almost felt guilty driving past him. He must have come a fair old distance as there were no houses nearby and here we were in the car with just a measly bit of carpet. Did I say guilty? I think I probably meant inadequate.
We got to the tip and disposed of the carpet in the appropriate hopper. As we were leaving the dump the old man arrived at the entrance, no letup in his speed. We drove off. I wouldn’t recognise him again, unless perhaps he was pushing a handcart, with that same flat cap.
April 29, 2012
The cafe at Infosec2012, Earls Court, Tuesday 24th April
Two young salesmen smart in shiny suits
Take a short break, expense account cafe,
Corporate linguists, expert jargonistas
Sit now in silence, pondering their day.