Little Silver Birds

All the people stuck behind deadbolts and steel plate
You're shut off from the noise outside
You couldn't leave if you tried
Because it's pointless, it's worthless to deny that you are scared
All the fences, all the walls we build will never fall

I am in love with the chance that we all could do better than we do
The lonely and the broken, all the people forgotten
Let nobody tell you that your heart was
wrong

Send me little silver birds to keep the promise that you made
One hundred thousand tiny lights for all of us who feel the same
and all the fences and
all the walls we build will one day maybe fall

Sam Herlihy, 2006


Tunes: Hope Of The States: Left

For A Minute There

I've had a somewhat extended period of what Mike once described as a 'complete lack of a sense of humour'. I only had to open my eyes to feel pissed off about something or other, and I've not even bothered looking for my phone for most of the last week.

The burst water pipes, to be honest, didn't do much damage; a couple of album covers got a little soggy but that's it. Testament then to the design of the underbed storage. What annoyed me most was that I should have known that the pipes needed complete replacing, and not bodging. So it's been a week with no water, with Chuffy in more disarray than before and with me rapidly descending into grumpy central. It wasn't until today that everything had dried out completely so life can return to normal again, although without any water until next week when I can finally afford to buy some more water pipe. And do everything properly. I have, to be fair, learnt a great deal about Chuffy's plumbing.

And we're back online again. Turned out that after Orange's nice broadband upgrade went through the lack of service was then down to the modem practically melting in the heat and humidity. It was 40 degrees this morning! So a few adjustments and hopefully we're going to be back to normal service (although I believe I've said that before...)

Nah, what's really been getting me down is that there's been bad feeling down here, and as a result a good friend is heading off to Somerset next weekend for an unknown period of time. I understand why things have happened and I understand why there's always going to be a certain amount of unresolved conflict with the parties concerned. I also know that heading to Somerset might be part of the path that needs to be walked

I'm just greatly pissed off that it's come down to this and that there's not more that we can do. Or I can do.

I'm going to miss Mike. I'm going to miss my friend a great deal.


Tunes: Radiohead: OK Computer

Not So Wowy Nowy

So having posted those 2 pics from my nice new back bedroom, here's how it looked 24 hours later after the water feed burst again. Something that might partly explain my horrible mood this week...


Tunes: Coldplay: X&Y

Orange Crushed

Another period of radio silence from the river. However this time it's been mainly down to the lack of internet connection. Bless those lovely Wanadoo people who are now Orange and their 8MB broadband upgrade. It's through now, we've been back online since Saturday but the weeks leading up to the change over have been lacking in connectivity. Still, all good now.

During that time the sun has come out and the cold winter struggle is now a hazy distant memory. The hatches are open, the windows flung wide and the summer boat tan is coming along quite nicely thank you. It's so called because you get tanned just sitting in the boat.

We've had an amazing array of starlings, goldfinches, wagtails and blue tits feeding off the trees and bushes around the mooring, filling the air full of song and skimming low over the water. If you're up early enough, which I tend to be these days, you can catch some of the ducklings and goslings on their way out. Most of them are small, fluffy and incredibly cute. Let me tell you, Hans christian Anderson lied. There's no such thing as an ugly duckling. Except maybe the baby coots with their bright red punk tonsures. As soon as I can get my camera downloading again I'll try to get a few pics up of the neighbours.

Work's busy as ever, but that's not what's been keeping me from doing much outside of home. Two months ago or so, Mo and I started ripping the old double bed out of the back room. If you haven't seen or can't remember what the back room looks like it used to have a double bed built in taking up the entire room. Now it's a single bed with a futon style lid, under bed storage, new shelves up on one side and a fresh lick of paint and varnish all round. There's still a work desk to go in and a couple more shelves and then I move on to the back. But more of that later. I have about another two months before I have to start on the outside to complete it before the rain starts again. Unless we get another Indian summer like last year.

So there's a quick catch up of the past few weeks. I can't tell you how good it feels to have the room done and everything put away again - more or less. I have space once more and I'm looking forward to having a week of enjoying it before I start on round 2.


Tunes: R.E.M.: Green