Bruce's journal (original) (raw)

It's been weird.

Friday rocked. A number of colleagues and myself bunked off work a little early to make our way to Hyde Park for the O2 Wireless Festival. In the sunshine we saw Gnarls Barkley (so-so live), The Flaming Lips (Santa Clauses, aliens, huge inflatable spacemen, underwear perverts, singing nuns, Bohemian Rhapsody and Wayne Coyne rolling on top of the audience in a giant hamster ball), DJ Shadow (also so-so live) and Massive Attack (just...wow). Massive Attack had a slew of guest vocalists including Horace Andy and Elizabeth Fraser (of Cocteau Twins) and, as the sun went down, just blew everybody away. Mind you, I had taken a couple of legal ecstacy-substitutes1 first so my judgement might be slightly biased.

From there it was onto a club who were having a dubstep all-nighter. It's been a while since I've been out to a club and, sweet jesus, they haven't cleaned up their acts in the meantime. The bouncers were only confiscating drugs off the punters so that the gang members in the club could sell them more. The music was loud, the atmosphere smoky, the lighting none-existent and the temperature obscene - so I made my excuses at 2am and wandered off home.

Saturday didn't really happen. I woke up around 3:30pm and did staggeringly little before going back to bed at 9:30pm.

Sunday was slightly better - my appetite hadn't really returned and I was a little low on blood sugar, so I went out drinking with Matt against all good judgement. I had to slope off early (sorry, Matt!) but we did manage to squeeze in a viewing of Over The Hedge. It's squeaky-clean even by kids' movie standards but still worth a hyuk or two. No spoilers but Hammy the squirrel completely steals the movie - as is only proper.

And so back to work - where I've ended up doing support, QA, development and rumour-mongering in a semi-official capacity all in a single day. There is some current ugliness over a former employee (who's someone I always got on pretty well with) and the way in which he found himself no longer employed. I was surprised to be pulled aside by someone senior (and usually disinterested with internal politics) who wanted to take a sounding as to the general sentiment over the matter. The whole thing goes to a grievance hearing shortly though, so that's about as detailed as I can get - but still, weird times. I'm not used to management caring if they're disliked or not.

Still, off to Texas on Thursday - I never did quite finish the rocket but hatter offered to apply to final coat(s) of lacquer so all's good. Still no photos - but I promise I'll get some 'before' and (presuming I can find it) 'after' shots even if I don't have anything capable of getting action shots.

Addendum: Oh, also on Sunday, I finally completed the metric assload of paperwork necessary to move my mortgage from Halifax to Nationwide. Halifax, the scrotes, would only offer me 5.5% fixed for two years whereas Nationwide offered 4.98% fixed for three - but, by criminy, it's bloody hard work to move (especially if you're a leaseholder with a landlord who's reluctant to return your calls). I feel accomplished.

1 UK legal, that is. They're TFMPP/BZP pills similar to the ones I took in Amsterdam but stronger and a lot closer in effect to genuine MDMA.