So I’ve been back a while now living in total solitude. It’s amazing how little this village has changed in the twenty five years I’ve been living here. Take the post office. Everything is arranged in exactly the same way as I remember it as a child. It looks like they’ve been buying exactly the same stock for decades. The last time I was down I had my haircut in the hairdressers. Again this hasn’t changed its interior since as long as I can remember: people like shabby it seems. Everything is so static: change is actively resisted. I feel alien here now. Maybe I’m paranoid or maybe it’s just the fact that there is nobody my age in the village. Where are all the young professionals? Where are the twenty-something wasters even? They must be around somewhere. I can’t even go into the pub anymore, though that has changed but alas only for the worse. My main daily contact with other human beings is going to the shop to buy the paper. Unfortunately the old woman who works in there seems barely sentient, just a human shell that mechanically acts out its tasks. Not much of an update but not much to tell I’m afraid. Got to get some inspiration…
Okay so no postings for the whole of July. I know it’s been a while but it’s my blog and I can do what I like. I had to move house at the end of June which was a nightmare. Originally I was to be house-sitting for someone in Manchester for July and August but this deal fell through. As a result I’ve had ‘no fixed abode’ since the beginning of June and consequently no internet access. In the end I ended up sharing a single room with Matt in Saint Anselm hall near Rusholme. The place seemed to be stuck in a fifties time warp. It was quite surreal. I’m not proud of this period in my life. Maybe I’ll look back and laugh one day but then again maybe not.
Gosh. So much has happened since I last wrote any thing here I don’t know where to start: war in the Middle East, terror apocalypse at home (maybe). I was in London on the day the plot was revealed and the arrests were made. The BBC news coverage seemed to revel in the telling of the fact that the Home Office’s official alert status was ‘critical’ meaning an attack was imminent, AN ATTACK WAS DEFFINATELY GOING TO HAPPEN AT ANY MOMENT. Thankfully it’s been downgraded to severe now without anything actually happening. What a crazy world we live in. With new revelations everyday, the shock wave from this newest terror threat is yet to be properly disseminated. I may write about my own thoughts on this here in the next few weeks. I’m going to try and write weekly now (honest).
Anyway it was funny to get back to Devon and see the local press. According to the local rag, I forget its name, the people of Exeter remained defiant in the face of this latest terror threat, “You don’t scare us” it said proudly in large lettering on the front page. Well you wouldn’t be if you lived in Exeter would you? Ah it sure feels good to be back in officially ‘Britain’s Whitest County’.
I’ve also been on holiday to Spain since I last wrote. You can see the pictures if you want on http://www.thebadrash.com