9 years ago today I was on a ferry to France on a school exchange. I was very seasick, a lot of people were. It was not a good crossing. I did go and watch Philadelphia in the cinema and made a great effort not to actually throw up. But I enjoyed the movie and survived.
9 years ago tomorrow, I was in Paris for the first time and I was up the Eiffel Tower. We had lunch in McDonalds and I bought my family some souvenirs. Over the next 10 days I would attend school there, visit the Science Museum which I loved and manged to get back to only once since then and generally see some sights. I remember loving the banks of the Seine and all that area. Looking back it was a lovely place to go walking in and I want to go back and just wander around. I really should get around to actually doing some French lessons and get back to speaking standard.
As you may have gathered I actually looked through some of my old diaries when I found them as I was cleaning this afternoon. It was going really well, I got a hell of alot done. But as soon as I started to move the furniture it all went to hell. I have now given up for the day and will have a bash again tomorrow. It’s not all that bad…I just need to restock a couple of shelves and stack some other shit away. I think I have a bit more space as hoped, certainly there is enough for another two shelves which was the point of the exercise. I’m just hoping my flatmate does not come home tonight so I don’t have to clear the landing. It’s almost like an obstacle course.
I hate banks, more precisely I hate English banks. Tidying away all my statements and letters and all that stuff today really rams it home. Not only do they not want to know you until you have lived at a fixed address for three years (which I now have) they charge massive rates for high service. I forgot about a cheque I wrote last month and didn’t leave enough in my chequeing account. Luckily enough I have a guarantee card so they honoured the cheque, but of course they charged me £25 for card misuse. I don’t believe for a single second that is the actual cost of the admin. fee, I suspect that does not even enter the pence range. At the start of the year when a transfer I made to another account didn’t actually go through for well over a month do I get to charge them a fee? Hell no, I don’t even get a reason why. Bastards.
Listening to The Bends right now. I picked up NME Originals: Radiohead yesterday and it’s pretty much 15 years worth of interviews and reviews under one spine. Working my way through it had me really really wanting to listen to this again, so I am.
Oh I watched Superman last night and really really enjoyed it. It’s been a hell of a long time since I saw it and I had forgotten how good it actually is. I shall have to pick up Superman II sometime soon. I would be watching V this evening and a few moments later I am in fact watching the original mini-series. Thoroughly great show. I didn’t know that creator Kenneth Johnson also had a hand in creating Alien Nation and according to the IMDB V: The Second Generation is in production. That could be very cool!