No news is no news

Mucho apologia for anyone who’s been checking on this – preoccupied with, er, absolutely bog all at the moment. Just been a bit absent in the head I’m afraid. One possible factor is my current health kick, which at present consists only of not drinking beer. Not a big thing for most I guess, but I seem to be singly bereft of inspiration as a result.

Incidentally, I did have some beer on Wednesday but that was a free jug won in a pub quiz so that doesn’t count. To refuse would have been a rebellion against the gods themselves.

I had some study leave over the TAFE holiday, ostensibly to do more work on my waste-of-time online course, but of course most of my intended activity got wildly displaced, mainly but running through the Baldurs Gate computer game yet again.

Been up to Avoca a couple of times recently, which is always good. Last time we even managed a death-defying trek to the next beach up that involved blind leaps over terrifying precipices, swarms of malignant jellyfish and tides racing in to cut us off. Ate a lovely Magnum at the end of it all. That next beach, by the way, is called Copacabana, so we all had Barry Manilow stuck in our heads for the entire day.

Arts-wise its been big on movies (favourite: Before Sunset) and slow on books, largely because I’m wrestling with A La Recherché Du Temps Perdu. Still, by the time I’m through I’ll be able to summarise what Proust in his first book wrote about.* Nothing much musically due to lack of cash (yet to get CDs by Dizzee, Brian Wilson, Bjork, Wilco, Fiery Furnaces, Interpol, Tom Waits, Ron Sexsmith, Rufus Wainwright, REM etc etc sob sob). Then again, we’ve pulled it together for REM live and the Big Day Out (Beastie Boys, Chemical Bros, The Streets, lots of Aussie bobbins).

Today is M’s birthday (31st), which always gives me the guilts, cos we get lovely cards from people who we always forget to send them to. Just proves that all my friends are more admirable people than I am, I suppose, but then I knew that. Never forget, we love you all! Mwah, mwah.

* 6th-form style Monty Python references: are they back in fashion yet?