Friday, March 04, 2005

I'm back from my brief sabbatical into the real world. I survived my first date all those weeks ago, and it lead to a number of others, including valentine's dinners (and gifts), shopping trips, cosy nights in front of the fire,culminating in a short sojourn to Brugge. It's not officially over yet either but I have a need for a bit of space and perspective.

Brugge was beautiful if a little on the chilly side. One of my fellow travellers, henceforth to be known as Captain Condom, had rather thoughtfully booked us on a guided tour of the medieval town.............................by bike!! You can imagine my delight when not only did I manage to stay upright and accident-free for the best part of 3 and half hours, but even succeeded in thoroughly enjoying myself! I shall seek out this form of transport around future cities which I may visit, carefully avoiding places like Rome, Sheffield, San Francisco and other towns renowned for their more than zero gradients.

I finally subscribed to broadband a few weeks ago. I was happy enough with my dial-up but succumbed to all the mocking and evangelism from my co-cybergeeks. What a palaver! I've bought enough ADSL cable to stretch to Bolton and back, invested in new wireless phones, unplugged my answer-machine ( I only ever seemed to get notes from call-centres praising my melodic recorded message for brightening their day) yet still I can't get the flashing light on the modem to stabilise. So now I'm paying for both broadband and dial-up - fantastic!

And today I got a card out of the blue from one of my oldest friends who was struck down with terminal ME about 17 years ago, and despite her best efforts at lymphatic drainage, hair-shaving and frantic masturbation, still struggles to escape her wheelchair for more than a few hours at a time. She's sending me a Dr. Phil book. Now I know there are times when my usually immaculate veneer of a perfectly held-together life might slip a bit, but how on earth did she detect it from deepest Manchester when we've only met on a handful of occasions in the last decade? I shall await it with expectation and let you know if it has any profound effects.


In memory of Ruth - 1974-2005

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