Acknowledgements
Professor Thomas Willis, for his offerings of ferry times when we were at our lowest ebbs at Waterloo.
Nice men at Heathrow (termonals 1-3) tube who issued us travelcards.
Nice man and woman (intially thought they'd be moody) at Southern Trains (Victoria) who gave us train tickets.
Nice men (x4) also at Victoria who gave us return tickets on the Gatwick Express.
Guard at Euston who let us through without a ticket.
Nice (simple) ferry man at Portsmouth. Nice ferry lady at Portsmouth.
Virgin trains.
Sympathetic woman in restaurant in Le Havre who attempted to communicate with me despite my not speaking French. How I expected her to tell me what kind of poisson it was (didn't want Akira's allergies to blow him up) when I could barely order a salad, I don't know. Then couldn't remember how to ask for the bill. Appalling! Did manage to discuss the veggie items, and got her to show us the said uncooked fish, though, so can't have been that bad (er...). Said, "oui" a lot. Mind you, one woman in a shop said nothing but "bonjour" throughout an entire interaction. Maybe after all I'm impressively eloquent!
Oh yeah, nice man at Heathrow who gave us a motivational speech that went a-little-something like this (huh): "Don't give up, guys. You can never lose faith. Faith and 'ope. If you lost faith and 'ope, what else is there? Well, charity, I s'pose." Funny, funny guy. He was, however, not charitable enough to let us on his airline.
Akira - you rock. And your folks. Sorry I slept in and didn't see them. Really sorry.
Mum - supportive texts throughout, even if they did say things like "sod the bloody challenge. Go to London for a nice weekend. Fallen out with Akira yet?" in response to my texts informing her that I was in Waterloo station. Maybe mum needs the London map more than I.
Boos go to:
Gobby bint on the nightbus who retalliated in a most uncivilised manner to the nice bus driver. I was delighted when the bus didn't stop where she was hoping to go.
All workers of airlines, everywhere.
The aforementioned Southern buggerface of a taxi driver in Portsmouth.
Eurostar.
Heathrow's Costa worker for his surly behaviour. Expensive, too.
Taxi drivers in the Edgeware region circa 3am on Sunday morning. Where the buggery were you?
PS Still got the shakes. Still freezing. Let's see if this is an insurmountable task even for the Bagpuss hottle bottle.
Nice men at Heathrow (termonals 1-3) tube who issued us travelcards.
Nice man and woman (intially thought they'd be moody) at Southern Trains (Victoria) who gave us train tickets.
Nice men (x4) also at Victoria who gave us return tickets on the Gatwick Express.
Guard at Euston who let us through without a ticket.
Nice (simple) ferry man at Portsmouth. Nice ferry lady at Portsmouth.
Virgin trains.
Sympathetic woman in restaurant in Le Havre who attempted to communicate with me despite my not speaking French. How I expected her to tell me what kind of poisson it was (didn't want Akira's allergies to blow him up) when I could barely order a salad, I don't know. Then couldn't remember how to ask for the bill. Appalling! Did manage to discuss the veggie items, and got her to show us the said uncooked fish, though, so can't have been that bad (er...). Said, "oui" a lot. Mind you, one woman in a shop said nothing but "bonjour" throughout an entire interaction. Maybe after all I'm impressively eloquent!
Oh yeah, nice man at Heathrow who gave us a motivational speech that went a-little-something like this (huh): "Don't give up, guys. You can never lose faith. Faith and 'ope. If you lost faith and 'ope, what else is there? Well, charity, I s'pose." Funny, funny guy. He was, however, not charitable enough to let us on his airline.
Akira - you rock. And your folks. Sorry I slept in and didn't see them. Really sorry.
Mum - supportive texts throughout, even if they did say things like "sod the bloody challenge. Go to London for a nice weekend. Fallen out with Akira yet?" in response to my texts informing her that I was in Waterloo station. Maybe mum needs the London map more than I.
Boos go to:
Gobby bint on the nightbus who retalliated in a most uncivilised manner to the nice bus driver. I was delighted when the bus didn't stop where she was hoping to go.
All workers of airlines, everywhere.
The aforementioned Southern buggerface of a taxi driver in Portsmouth.
Eurostar.
Heathrow's Costa worker for his surly behaviour. Expensive, too.
Taxi drivers in the Edgeware region circa 3am on Sunday morning. Where the buggery were you?
PS Still got the shakes. Still freezing. Let's see if this is an insurmountable task even for the Bagpuss hottle bottle.
posted by Moon @ 7:57 pm
22 Comments:
At 9:28 pm,
Lord G said…
Edgeware road at 3am is better than the US. Actually, that's probably not entirely the truth... Where in the US are you going? And why?
You have never seen anything like Paddy's day here. It's feckin (pun intended) ridiculous... Honestly, every fucker goes out, and says happy paddy's day, and claims that they're going to drink green beer.
It's so totally, like, way uncool, if you ask me.
At 11:11 pm,
Moon said…
Bloody hell, does sound like a nightmare. I'm sure it never used to be such a big deal. Has it become increasingly like, totally awesome over the years?
Am off to Arizona. Tucson. Conference. Should be good as like going to conferences where I know no-one. Means I can act like more of a twat than usual. And, considering the way my PhD's currently going, I'll probably never see any of these academics again. So, drinking til sickness is inevitable. If you have any tip offs for green beer-selling establishments it would be much appreciated.
At 3:30 am,
Lord G said…
The reason is this, and this alone: Americans.
However, there is hope. Arizona is fucking ace. I've never been to Tucson, but expect it to be warm and very dry.
It's a shame you're not in Phoenix, as I'd then tell you to get a rental car out and head the 200-300 miles north to Flagstaff... It's an amazing drive and the destination is a cool little arty chilled out town... You could look for cheap flights from Tucson....
What is your PhD on anyway?
At 3:30 am,
Lord G said…
The reason is this, and this alone: Americans.
However, there is hope. Arizona is fucking ace. I've never been to Tucson, but expect it to be warm and very dry.
It's a shame you're not in Phoenix, as I'd then tell you to get a rental car out and head the 200-300 miles north to Flagstaff... It's an amazing drive and the destination is a cool little arty chilled out town... You could look for cheap flights from Tucson....
What is your PhD on anyway?
At 9:37 am,
Moon said…
Cheers muchly for the Arizona inspiration - sounds cool. If finances allow I'll certainly check out flights to interesting nearby towns.
PhD is on remembering dreams (hence the agony Aunt writing style in response to Tom's dreams post). This means I can bum schmooze with the cognitive crew as well as hang out at bohemian dives celebating Freud through the medium of dance (Tucson conference is on consciousness). Currently going through the supposedly typical 2nd year slump. Might write a post about it, actually.
So do you really hate Americans or will you miss them if/when you leave Florida? How long you sticking around there for? Sounds like the US would be a total ego boost. Could be the slimmest, smartest person in town!
At 10:32 am,
Tombola said…
Cheers for the props Moon! x
At 11:26 am,
Lord G said…
Well nearby in this case is about 500 miles, but it's a great place. Google it.
Dreams eh... I've just had one about Helmut Newton. Probably as I was reading something about him last night. That's not particularly interesting is it.
I had a second year slump. However, I had one every year until I finally nearly killed myself by writing up. It is worth it though. I keep telling myself that. If only as you can say "Dr" in a pretentious manner to arseholes with an ego/attitude problem when they ask who you are.
There are some nice americans, there are some interesting ones, though both are in short supply, and most of them tend to arty for some reason. Probably as they're more open-minded (not god-bothering right wing nutjobs)and laid back. I know that Whorlando and Floriduh aren't representative of the whole US though.
Will I will miss my nightclasses at the small art college I go to (that does sound pretentious), and being able to go to relatively quiet beaches (and it's hot). Apart from that... Erm, no. I won't miss it. Not one little smigeon - what is the correct spelling of that? As I said in a post last year, whilst being in not the best mood ever - generally speaking, Florida has all the appeal of syphillis.
It can be an ego boost, as the style, the slimness, the humour and the quality of PhDs are all very low . However, those are also the people you have to work/talk to.
Unless I get more funding, I'm getting booted at the end of May.
At 1:47 pm,
frankien said…
I believe its smidgen
At 5:38 pm,
Moon said…
smidgeon it is.
Have googled Flagstaff and I now know why it is so called. Funnily enough it's the result of a visible flagstaff from years ago. Amazing. Am going to check out mini trips to exciting places, definitely, although not sure how much I can squish into 6 days...
Am in agreement over the wonders of the title, "Dr". It bothers me when people are too modest to use them. Why on earth would you get a PhD if not to give yourself a supercilious name?
So you attend a liberal arts college, do you? Do you wear a mildly patterned cravat? And hug people a lot? Maybe read a lot about Buddhism?
Booted from job means a return to UK? Or will you try for another Florida-based post? It doesn't sound so bad. Let's pay homage to all the stupid people of Leeds for a moment. Sadly they can't be avoided whereever you are. Boo.
I would like to take this opporunity to thank all for commenting and getting me up to the grand total of 9 comments. I am truly blessed.
At 5:40 pm,
Tombola said…
Blessed you may be, Moon, but have you stopped shaking yet?
At 5:53 pm,
Moon said…
Just about. Had a bad bout yesterday morning, and an aftershock-style tremor last night. Today has been pretty stable. Concern greatly appreciated.
At 7:14 pm,
Lord G said…
Em can't spell... ah ahahahahaha.
It is indeed called that for that reason. I can now see your fantastic research capacities... Flagstaff is also only about 70 miles away from the south rim of the grand canyon.
I don't use the title Dr at work, though apparently all lecturers here demand that students call them Dr all the time. Odd. Whatever happened to calling your lecturers "nick" or "bob" (if indeed that is their name).
Nah, just a small college for night classes. However I do wear a cravat. In bed. I also smoke a pipe and have a beard, yet no 'tache. mmmm nice.
Means coming back home.
Get you with 12 comments.
At 8:48 pm,
Moon said…
Cravat plus bottle green velvet dressingown, pipe, perhaps a monocle for a little night reading. You greet people at your door with "ah, I was expecting you..." as your cat jumps out your arms and runs along the piano keys...
13 comments. Will continue to self post if necessary.
Looks like both smidgeon and smidgen are acceptable, although smidgen more commonly used. Got to do something more productive than this, for fuck's sake!
Homeward travels a good thing then, presumably...?
At 3:28 pm,
frankien said…
yeah I can spell. I do it quite well as it happens.
At 3:55 pm,
Lord G said…
Em.. I can see you on one of thise US-type programmes for child spelling prodigies.... However, the image is made far funnier by making the contestents where pig costumes, as in "pig in a poke" (oink oink).
Yes, coming home is definitely a good thing. It would be better if I came home with a job though..
At 11:42 am,
Tombola said…
Gaz - your spelling in that last post was shocking. And you like to explore the rim.
At 5:02 pm,
frankien said…
darn it, if they'd had those spelling bees over here I'd have entered. I saw some of that naff celeb spelling contest (I think it came on before casualty, is my excuse. not much of one, granted) and there was a precocious US champion kid on it as the expert speller. Anyone seen Magnolia? cos I've seen that poor kid's future.
17 posts and counting! (yeah, I'm good at counting too).
At 5:48 pm,
Moon said…
That's awful. The kid shall publicly piss itself and then need braces (didn't he grow up to be the repressed homosexual who ironically bust his teeth at the end?) - brilliant film.
Anyway, frankien, I think you've successfully skipped those misfortunes whilst maintaining grand spelling abilities.
At 8:55 pm,
Lord G said…
I remember Frankien pissing herself in public. In Zoom bar or whatever it's called. I'm sure she did. Probably.
At 12:37 pm,
frankien said…
No Gaz, I was referring to the film, not drawing on my own experiences. I accept that I spilled a drink on you, but I certainly didnt do a wee on the floor. If I had, I would never have left the house again. anyway, we all know I only do that when theres a spotlight.
At 1:19 pm,
Lord G said…
I know you were, but I thought it was funny to use poetic licence on the truth. Sorry x
At 8:49 pm,
Moon said…
I have come to terms with the fact I cannot wallow in this comment forum forever. So, a new post is up (although it's a bit of a downer).
I'd like to thank my family and friends, without whom this blog would be nothing. And, of course, God.
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