OCCUPIED COUNTRY: January 2008

Monday, January 28, 2008

Too much information

I'm coming to the end of my first long weekend for ten weeks. Consequently I'm as depressed as depressed can be. Never let me forget just how much I hate this job. Never. And tomorrow? Rain. Heavy at times, but always there. Unremitting, soaking, dispiriting fucking rain.

Still, chin up.

"Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
Posting junkmail as a pissed-off postman"

I have been tentatively offered a job (that I can't do and I told them at the beginning of the interview I couldn't do), with a profoundly ploddish and dock-greened institution. After the main interviewer outlined the job on offer, I had to hold my hands up and say "I'm sorry but there's been a misunderstanding here, I may have read your advertisement wrong (I hadn't), but I don't want to waste any more of your time. I have no experience of administering Oracle databases; I thought I was here to be interviewed for a basic 2nd or 3rd line IT support role with experience of databases in general?"

"Errrrr....O.....Kayyyyy.......Hmmmmmm, well, let's do the interview anyway and see how we both feel at the end. What is your understanding of 'diversity'?"

An hour and half later I walked out into the beautiful Mancunian incessant rain and thought "well, no chance."

A week later I get a letter saying I was successful - subject to the vetting of my ENTIRE family - including my dead father and my feckless, criminal-record-as-long-as-your-arm brother.

So, we'll see. In the meantime......"Postman Pat, Postman Pat, Postman Pat and his black and white cat............."

In the meantime, that pic of books to read above shows just what I need to do to get back up to speed with the technological malarkey required to shuffle through a typical day in IT support - wherever that support is required.

Ho hum!

Balloons. Manchester City. Cock ups. What can you say? The urge for City fans is to say "typical City" - that's almost become Mantra over the years. Whatever can go wrong WILL go wrong. Roll on the "minute's silence".

A few more pics. Thanks for all your kind comments.

Stonewall bridge with lichen daisy Nook border

Old bridge at a local beauty spot.

I have been dreaming a lot about trees just recently. Why? I haven't goat a clue. Any dream-analysts out there?

Fast car.

Shop window, Manchester January 2008.

National Geographic Greatest Photographs

As a kid I used to love reading these at junior school. Exotic, full colour photographs that took your breath away. As well as the superb photography there was also the opportunity to view bare breasted women from around the Empire. A fabulous combination of education and voyeurism. I was only 11.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Just Walkin' in the Rain

I'm getting very angry about the "predicted" disruption of the minute's silence at the Manchester Derby next month. The media are discussing it like it's already happened. It hasn't. Perhaps it will happen. Perhaps not, But can we stop reporting it as though it already has? Furthermore, can we stop the pious nonsense coming from every commentator, journalist and "spokesman" about the "need" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Munich disaster.

It could be remembered with dignity in a reserved way without all the brouhaha and media circus. It could be something other than the commercial money spinner that it has evolved into.

I was four when the tragedy occurred so it didn't really affect me at the time but, as I grew and morphed into a City fan, I often used to try to imagine how I would have felt if my beloved team of the late 60s had met a similar fate? Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee, Neil Young, Tony Book, Glyn Pardoe, Alan Oakes, Joe Corrigan gone. Cut down in their prime. As it happens we did lose a great City player in that plane crash. Frank Swift was a giant of a man who was City's goalkeeper for 17 years or so. He also represented England. By 1958 he was sports journalist for the News of the World and was with United as they boarded on that fateful day. We also almost lost another ex-City player in Matt Busby. The sad thing is IF the silence is broken, it'll be broken by somebody who wasn't even alive during the event being remembered. I'll tell you this much; if some chavved-up dickhead started disrupting the minute's silence if it was for Bell, Summerbee et al I think I'd quite cheerfully kill him or her.

Just like if I was a Leeds United fan and Manchester United or Liverpool "supporters" started singing about Turks with knives. Just like I would if I was a Liverpool fan and Manchester United "supporters" started singing about Hillsborough. Hypocrisy.

Death transcends football. Always has and always will. Shankly was wrong.

Sadly commerce transcends football as well and that's what leaves the sour taste in my mouth regarding this whole sorry business. For there can be no doubt that Big Business is rubbing its hands together as the Glazer machine ups the ante on the Munich disaster. There's quite a lot of anger in Manchester about the fact that United's sponsors AIG have their logo spattered all over anything to do with the 50th anniversary ~~celebration~~ remembrance. A United spokesman called it "entirely appropriate" that the logo should be there. And quite right too. A brilliant marketing tie in there. I mean plane crashes and insurance companies. A match made in Heaven?

In other news part of me was gobsmacked that this could be even considered in the early 21st century, but on the other hand it is religion so perhaps I shouldn't be too shocked.

"Plans to exhume Padre Pio - one of Italy's most popular saints - on the 40th anniversary of his death have been attacked by relatives and followers. Church authorities say they want to display the body for veneration by the faithful for several months from April."

I ask yer. The man's only been dead forty years or so - would you go and see him? Morbid, God-botherin' arseholes.

Oh, and get this:-

"The hands of the saint, who lived to the age of 81, often bled copiously. His followers said he bore the wounds of the crucified Christ."

How did he manage that then? Did he go to the doctors? "Doc my hands keep bleeding copiously what the hell do you think it could be?"

"I think you are either a)regularly sticking nails in them when no one is looking or b)God is attempting to communicate with mankind via the obvious portal of your paws."

On a similar theme. Can you believe this.

(via Alastair's Heart Monitor)

Right, I'll sign off with a few pics again.

Going home. Manchester January 2008

The Manchester Wheel. January 2008

Beneath the Wheel in the rain. Manchester 2008.

Manchester January 2008

The library back entrance with selective colour. Manchester January 2008.

Never pontificate with a pigeon on your pate.

By the Cathedral in the rain. Manchester January 2008

That's all folks!

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happiness is Easy

Howdy doody everybody. Am I back? Who knows. I am today at least. So we'll see how it goes. It's been a hard few months with brief moments of optimism so I've not really been in a mood for spouting nonsense on t'Internet.

I'm just glad the "festive season" has finally fucked off. This year has been particularly difficult but I've done it now and hopefully I can move on. I've been worried sick about my Mam's ability to cope with her first Xmas without my Dad but, fortunately/unfortunately, her disintegrating mind has allowed most of it to wash over her. Today she's had a call from her brother in South Africa to go and stay with him for a few weeks so she's perked up a bit at that.

I'm still a part time postman and I still fucking hate it. What an institutionalised management style they have in the Royal Mail Group. Here's an example:-

"I will be needing a day off sometime in January, what's the procedure?"

"You come and see me and I'll tell you if you can have the day off or not."

I made a mental note to phone in sick as I stared into the power-mad face of the managerial - and indeed social - inadequate. The man's a fucking buffoon. What do you think he thought he'd achieved with that reply? It was the first time I'd ever spoken to him. It was a basic, general query about a basic necessity of ALL employees. Why did he feel the need to demonstrate his "power"? Why the aggressive response? Why the flicker of a smirk playing around the corners of his lips?

Because he's what happens when you promote some fucker beyond his abilities. Believe me The Royal Mail Group is full of 'em. Self-important "overseers" who bellow orders at those at the bottom of the ladder and then stand there watching the work being done without pitching in themselves. Fred Engels would've recognised the working environment I now find myself in. Honestly.

But I can't leave until I get something else. I can't just walk out or I'll be picking up bad references and the stigma that attaches itself to those who just stick up two fingers and bugger off. I have a few irons in the fire but it'll be a few weeks before any of them become potential get outs. Here's hoping.

Once I've sorted my mail and got out of the sorting office though, life isn't so bad. Some days I walk round with the iPod on, set to "shuffle" and an instruction to listen to everything - regardless of what it is. Some days I just get pissed wet through. Other days freezing cold. Most days knackered.

On the plus side I'm a hell of a lot fitter - walking 6 to 8 miles a day and having a two week break from drink - I've lost nearly 2 stone in 6 weeks. It's costing me a fortune in new clothes though. But on the whole it's still better than sitting at home all day doing fuck all.

I'm enjoying my music again and have seen a few good bands over the past few weeks. Tunng I especially enjoyed. Sigur Ross's new "LP" is a constant on t'iPod and I'm discovering a band from my hometown who are massive on the continent - Puressence. Youngest was at school with the lead singer and was at the local, small and intimate gig they did just before New Year at a local dive. Lead singer James Mudrickzi has invited to sing along side Leonard Cohen and Rufus Wainwright in the spring Judy Collins tribute in the US. He's got a fabulous voice and he is extremely honoured and blown away by the invite.

And finally......it's photography time again. Eeeeee I love this Pentax K100D DSLR. I'm thinking of setting up a proper photoblog but until or if I do I'll stick the ones I like best on here. So, here you go:-