I don’t understand war

May be I’m simplistic, but I really don’t understand how people can treat other people as if they are not human. I’ve just been watching Never Say Die and like most other programmes about war, especially WWII, I cannot get my head round how people can lose their humanity and sink to such depths. I always observe Remembrance Day and try to think about the heroes but I really don’t see the heroism in war. Believe me I am grateful for the men and women who go to war; I may not agree with the concept of warfare but I do respect people who feel so strongly that they risk (and lose) their lives for those ideals. I generally do not respect the people who send them to war.

I don’t know why but this year I am more confused than ever about the concept of ‘going to war’. I am at heart a pacifist and wish people could/would talk instead of fighting. Many people will tell me I am naive and perhaps I am, I just don’t see how blowing people to bits in any declared or undeclared war is really going to sort out the world’s issues.

Sunday night horror

For reasons I am not sure I am watching Katie and Peter Andre - I am not in charge of the remote control and am quite worried about being married to someone who has DELIBERATELY chosen to watch this rubbish no matter how much he protests that he’s just trying to find out what all the critics are talking about!

Not another TV moment

So I am happily avoiding X Factor but given that I needed something to watch whilst making dinner tonight, I watched the dancing programme. The boy happened to notice Willie Thornton and said he looked like a ‘dancing ladder’ - hysterically funny at the time!

Round up

Hmmm…spending far too much time on Facebook - kidding myself it’s just because my friend base is growing and ignoring the general addictive quality.

So my eight weeks out of the country have been highly successful in terms of my football predictions - this weekend I feel it may have all gone wrong. Tried to get interested in the rugby but I don’t understand it and am more interested in Lewis Hamilton tomorrow - keeping most things crossed.

Stomach still ridiculously sensitive and am struggling with non African food - isn’t it daft that you get all worked up that you might get ill whilst you’re away and don’t then the minute you return home you stomach rebels - joy!

Lights have gone in the dining room - okay the ambient lighting is very er…ambient but not much use if you actually want to see what’s on your plate and the problem is that decent electricians are so few and far between that mine is currently (no not a joke) ignoring my calls.

Quite delighted that I haven’t seen any of the auditions for X Factor so am decidedly not interested in the programme - hurrah, this is progress.

Went to my first recovery meeting since I came back today - so nice to know there are other fucked up people in the world. I had been feeling so well whilst I was away but my life here is so bloody toxic that it needs all the therapy it can get!

On a final note: I LOVE autumn. It’s all cool and chilly so you can get cosy toes but the sun still shines nicely and the leaves are perfect for kicking along (although I have to say in London you never quite know what you might accidentally kick underneath which always worries me).

BB and stuff

Rather like last year, BB has failed to capture my attention in any meaningful way. I still have it on most nights I’m in as it fills a nice little scheduling gap, but I don’t actually care about any of them. Nor do I have any idea who will win (probably a boy). In fact the only thing that intrigues me is how the twins will eventually be split up. Obviously I’m not crap enough to think they are “Samanda” (unlike one of our esteemed national newspapers), but they do seem remarkably similar and inoffensive (apart from they do need to come with volume control) so I can’t see how the housemates or public will decide which one should go first.

On a more general note, summer schedule television is crap. Not everyone leaves the country in July and August. There are still licence payers who want to be able to watch something reasonable of an evening.

Back to watching Dallas tomorrow though - v excited! This working malarkey’s all very well but it does have rather a negative impact on my keeping up with the Ewings!

Laptop trauma

I know I haven’t blogged for ages, this is largely due to a lack of hardware. My laptop had developed an audio card problem so I phoned up PC World as it’s only six months old and was really annoying me. “No worries,” they said, “we’ll come and pick it up and the repair is likely to take five days.” So I thought that sounded all rather reasonable and sent it off. BIG MISTAKE.

Three weeks later there is no sign of my laptop, they are still waiting for a part and I have been struggling along with internet cafes and now - thank Crunchie - a borrowed laptop. Mysteriously when I have phoned up about the missing computer, the ‘average’ length of time for a repair has gone from 5-7 days to 7-10 days and is now a whopping 10-14 days. We are now on working day 15 and I am fairly livid. Annoyed at not having my laptop and REALLY annoyed at their crappy customer service.

So apart from frequenting many an internet cafe, what else have I been up to?

Went to Antibes for the weekend which was jolly nice except for the resulting sprained ankle - I still have black toes two and a half weeks later.

Have been trying to find some short term work and failing rather miserably. This is very annoying as there is loads of stuff out there but it’s all for at least three months and I’m off to Africa in less than two.

So I’ve been doing my TEFL course - although to be honest that’s been scuppered by the laptop situation - so I’ve only been able to do a bit this week. Got 91% for one module though so quite pleased.

Been doing tons of recovery work with varying degrees of success. On the whole it’s been okay but spent a lot of Sunday in the bath, in tears and on the phone to the Samaritans (not necessarily all at the same time) so probably a fair bit of room for improvement.

Day time TV has been a dominant feature. Not exactly thrillsville although Dallas remains gripping as it’s building up to the whole “who shot JR?” thing which was jolly exciting back in the day so (I’m hoping) will be equally gripping second time around.

I have also tried, and failed, to avoid Big Brother. Having convinced myself that I will not be in the country for the final few weeks, I was looking forward to a housemate free summer but no, some gremlin has got into the scheduling and, more often than not, BB fills that programme gap. My current thoughts on all the housemates are: Twins - surely not fair to lump them together all the time but they are pretty lightweight and pink so not much else to recommend them; Carol - heart’s in the right place but not everyone enjoys mothering, likely she’ll go this week; Chanelle - ah bless, a girl with issues and amusing hysterical outbursts (a la Nicki 2006), but her heart’s in the right place; Charley - annoying, self-absorbed, irritating, please remove her; Laura - annoying trouble-maker; Nicky - needs to lighten up, will her slight interest in Liam be her saving grace?; Tracy - seems a laugh but bit too remote from the rest of the group. As for the boys: Ziggy - takes himself a bit too seriously; Jerry - he’s growing on me, can’t quite decide if that’s because he’s increasingly appealing or because he’s like the vine weed that is the bain of my garden; Seany - see Charley, please get him out soon and someone also tell him cultivating the Mick Hucknall look os not to be recommended. Brian seems fun, he’s good-looking and seems to have a genuinely pleasant air about him; Jonathan - met far too many people like him and don’t like him; Liam seems a little dull although I think the target audience of BB will think he’s good looking and want to keep him in the house. Billy - can’t quite work him out yet but the Zoolander look is interesting. That is really sad, I have just spent ages writing about people in a house on a television, the phrase: “get a life” springs to mind.

Rain stopped play

Why does it always rain on  bank holiday weekends? Oh well, my garden’s enjoying it and it’s a good excuse not to mow the lawn (probably should have done it before the rain set in though as it’s starting to look like a jungle).

Among other annoyances:

My iron blew up this morning (and tripped the electricity - a small moment of panic). Because it’s Sunday I have to wait until 11 o’clock to get myself down to Argos to buy another one - grrr.

My Norton is playing silly buggers and keeps having ‘unexpected errors’, it’s become such a pain that what is unexpected is if it runs smoothly. In fact my laptop in general is being annoying and seems to have a bug in its audio card thingy - I think I’m going to have to take it in to be repaired - grrr.

Why can’t I change my ipod from Mac compatible to PC compatible without losing all my songs - grrr.

Went to the cinema yesterday. Probably a mistake to go on a Saturday afternoon and expect to actually be able to watch a film without hoardes of teenagers behaving like 5 year olds. No, actually that’s doing a disservice to 5 year olds. Beats me why you would pay to go to the cinema, spend half the time answering your mobile then reporting back on the conversation to your mates; spend quite a lot of time going up and down the aisles on various girly toilet trips; and buy an enormous box of popcorn and proceed to throw most of it on the floor, at other people etc. One of them was even playing with their PSP - multi-tasking or just having the attention span of a gnat? Makes me sound like a grumpy old person but it really was doing my head in. I actually took my life in my hands (well risked getting stabbed given this was the deeper darker regions of SW London) and asked them to be quiet. Made me feel ancient but had the required effect (well for about 20 minutes until there was another call on the mobile).

Okay, rant over.

Las episode of Lost tonight - v excited and at least I can watch in the peace and quiet of my living room with no popcorn and mobile phone switched off!

Other stuff

I didn’t want to write about ‘other stuff’ in my announcement of Africa blog (do you get the feeling I’m plugging it?!).

So, to sum up: Champions League - dull (well there’s a fucking surprise); US TV series that I watch - (Desperate Housewives, Lost) - all coming to an end as, apparently are Ugly Betty and 24, what do Americans do in the summer for decent TV?; BB - back soon (OMG - really? Can I convince myself I don’t need to watch it because I’ll be away when it ends?).

Okay, other non-related and pointless subjects:

It’s deliciously warm (although did get a bit sticky this evening). However, apparently rainy and vile this (bank holiday) weekend -quelle surprise!

I got a blister from my sandals yesterday and a sort of unpleasant rubbing effect from my shoes today so my feet are in a horrible state.

I’ve started compiling my definitive list of fave films and TV programmes. Actually a really good conversation starter/reviver/distractor. I hope to have an answer soon although still needs work as a discussion I had last night demonstrated that I had forgotten the film with one of my favourite lines of all time:

“Death by stereo”

How could I have forgotten?

I will endeavour to get this (rather poncily named) ouevre completed. Well - at least - to date.