today we did free running.
feeling bruised and free.

am sure it was less violent on tv

road kick wall roll fence jump dark wet and me and john may or may not have spectacularly danced in H+M for 20minutes up and down the escalators just to embarrass our friends. and then leap-frogged eachother standing upright all down the middle of the high st.

there is a gang that sometimes meets in Exeter +u do so rock

its like where taking over the world would be a medium-term plan

tommorrow Dartmoor -where probably the better part of me grew up.

yesterday i had lunch with the former passenger services chief executive of British Rail. He is old and tells good stories.

today people WILL SMILE and talk to you in the street.
This is one of my best case studies that there is still non organised communal resistance to the 'homogenisation of time'.
This day is not exactly the same as other days.

hope you had a good one.

today I saw a big fir tree suddenly have a massive explosion of what looked like smoke come out of the top of it. no fire. it could have been dust? or pollen? it was fully explosive! it happened again but not quite as much. Like i said: everyone should respect trees more.

i now have a way into westminster, the scottish executive, and the home office. I could potentially be really influential. if only I could think of something to say..

saw a documentary about the making of a spanish opera: how my wee sis went thespo.

does anyone else feel like theres this really genius idea that just hovers tantalisingly out of reach and hides whenever you look straight in its direction.

been mass choppin veg again. now so familiar a part of life..

try spendin a few seconds smiling with your eyes shut,

its like another world innit. visiting where you grew up if you dont normally live there. i'm there now.

today I finally saw it.. JUMP LONDON!! -nice one Dad with the video..
brought back a lot about a similar sport we used to practise on the streets of Exeter at night:
urbanclimbing (jumps buildings statues photos flips bus shelters etc)
mainly on a philosophical level.
Cities are always underestimated.
I like French people anyway.. and then they bring us free running!

"the only problem with the French is they dont have a word for entrepreneur," -GWB

The air in The Shire is lethally sleepy to people not acclimatised..
(broad Devon accent needed):

"sometoims I just sits and thinks.. and sometoims I just sits."

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!
early night before catching my train. oops 6.20am
thus spent an entire day in the world between waking and sleeping. It can be amazing what you see there. (like the layout of my house when i was 6)

backdrop blurred soundtrack bridges track newcastle clouds reflections fields cities york memories tickets leeds forests questions tea sheffield dull lights tannoy chimneys radiohead birmingham factories bread babies night bristol pins silos needles taunton.....

like a meditation on journeying, on homeliness, on family, on time, on England, on friendship, on existance, on winter.

in my mind a stream of consciousness with the unconscious bits edited out untidily and not thoroughly.

trains definitly have something about them. more than one

now in Exeter.
I like my family. (hello to any of you)

i think my phone has about an hour left of life ever so I'm trying to copy down all my numbers.
turned out my sorethroat was tonsilitis, och well.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the city's turning white as i type. people are smiling at eachother in the street. lovit.

I dont have anything to say about ROTK at this stage. but i think it is a good influence.
yesterday turned out to be best day (night) at work in ages. Disco in Gracemount. Bizzare but a good laff. Everyone dressed up soo much. Someone puked in the swimming pool and someone broke a door.
then straight to the Bongo. Electronica is a word used to describe lots of good music.
and like the trippy visuals.
inside out santa hats stuffed with tinsel make people look like gnomes. also good for acting out Kraftwerk videos.
the smoke machine went mental.
the trouble with drinking spillage is that it is a vicious circle.

on holiday til hogmanay.

sittin on a train to exeter for 8 1/2 hours tommorrow unless the rails block.

lots of people i know on the streets today. have been walking around again.

in winter it can be like all the life just hides away and pretends not to be there but it still is.
i hope it is. i hope i'm still alive.

its not really that bad. listening to my friends' band hejira
going to see the King return tonight.

"neither the drugs or the powerful body immersing spiritual experiences ... neither the next best thing - or the latest idea... neither cheesy naievety or hoody-eyed ultra cool sneer of seen it-got the video - ness ----------what will heal our deep sickness?? what will help us to begin again!! from a new place... of resurrection?"
-wee beautiful pict

Back in Scotland.
am sure its not fair to have major fatigue, bad back, lungs not working, and the worst sore
throat ever, in the space of 3days all seemingly unrelated. it's not a fair world tom. life goes on.

Belfast is a great city.
mourne mountains crisp december morning yes yes.
11ppl in a landrover for hours comfortable unless they try to fight you.

if you hold a glass of whisky at arms length and look through it at an open fire it looks.. well try it...

"it is better to write for the self and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
-author unknown.

busy week,
been doin lots of shifts of everything.

people often ask me what i do? what is a typical day?
yesterday..
00:00 drinking tea watching live thrash metal band in the bongo, smiling at other staff to say: 'yes i have noticed how surreal this is'.
02:30 sleep -definite highlight.
11:00 wake up and house is dark and freezing. had a power cut. later found out someone had cut through the mains cable into our tenement! (Fire engines called out in night cos of all the smoke caused)
12:00 go to Christmas dinner in a restaurant with all the honourary chaplains of the university.
a good laff, smile at the situations I get meself into. Red wine and big 3course meal for breakfast.
14:30 run for the bus.. we're going to Glasgow to meet someone we dont know for coffee in their office.. turns out to be very cool, they're starting a 24hr cafe in central Glasgow called Sanctuary. And unlike some of our ideas, they have all the people/experience/contacts/etc that they need. That's good. Think might meet them again somewhere. It's like another clue.

Now I am going to Northern Ireland. have a good weekend.

we have internet in the bongo club. I'm there now. there is no one here. well a few, but just bands. not really any punters. its kind of a shame. but we just get to chill for a few hours and get payed. No bother.

anyone want to go to Iona?

well we did it. put on a formal carol service for hundereds of people inc an MP and lots of formal uni people, and tried to help them to have hope. kind of like church for lots and lots of people who never go to church.
I have lots of thoughts but have to go to work in 5

the sun is shining, there is good trance on the radio, there's thick frost on the meadows,

"but you're supposed to be here to keep us off the streets! We're gonna go and burn loads of cars if you dont let us in!"
-one of my kids in Gracemount
(we had 120 turn up but were only allowed to let in 90 (and we only had 3 staff!!))

time is messing with me more than usual today.
it's good to have time but it can get out of hand.

i got up in time to see 5minutes fading daylight on my way to my girlfriend's for breakfast at 3pm then I went to work at the bongo and did a shift serving people drinks on their night out. And now I'm doing my paper work trying to edit my thing i have to read tommorrow, i've just had haggis supper for lunch innit.

i feel like night time is taking over my life.

I dreamt last night about being in a leafy forest with warm sunshine lighting up the clearings. I sunbathed for hours and was so happy.

the thought of going to a tanning place is going through my head again. But my friends would make fun of me forever and i'd go orange.

i think i might ban myself from writing about the dark.

ITS SO DARK ALL THE TIME! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!

last night i managed to do lots of my favorite things at the same time.
I was behind the bar in the bongo, with BMXers and skaters on a massive skate ramp inside the club, with me beanie on ASLEEP curled up in the foetal position on the floor. Gettin an hour and a halfs sleep while at work to save time later. I love the bongo!

today i have been mostly sitting on buses.

"people travel to wonder at the sight of vast mountains, of great rivers and huge spaces; and yet they pass by themselves without wondering." -st Augustine.

going to work in Gracemount now..

worked very hard last night till very late,
today i got up in time to see the sunset at half3, went up to the castle. First view of the sun in a few days. I knew it was always still there though.

"about 10 thousand people came and I danced on stage wearing a traditional Ecuadorian dress"
-Joy

the way thom yorke dances makes us think he should really be our friend.
dancing matters.

"i'm gonna pin you up against the wall and throw away the key"
-Malcolm Lamb (local legend)

I have to read out the hope bit (whole of chapter2 last tuesdays entry) not sure how i feel about that. (i can edit it a bit). Its gonna be well formal.

today made soup
I'm sure HIBERNATION should be a socially acceptable option

saw LOTRTTEVDVD last night
Everyone should respect trees more.

lots of people running around in batcapes today

yesterday we had a local metereological phenomenon known as the har. You cannot see anything but what you can see looks amazing.
Lovit.

"There are some mysteries still left about the human condition and one of them is the magic that occurs when two people sit down with the intention of listening to each other."
-McNeish 2004

Guess who has to read out a bit of a blog entry at the Official Edinburgh Uni Carol service in this ridiculously formal amazing building in front of 1500ish people including all the most official people in the university: principals etc. ???!!?!?! on Sunday night. Prayers very welcome.

Radiohead ARE a good band

saw them last night
lost coat wallet keys etc.........

going to play football..