Friday, April 05, 2002

Grim lunchtime. The sun was still doing its thing, but the wind has come back and everywhere not being shone upon was decidedly chilly. Add that to spending too loong in bookshops looking but not buying and realising that I have a stack of unread books and no time to read them and you get a gloomy Simon. Perhaps starting the week after next I shall start taking my lunchtime wanderings to a comfy bench somewhere and reading. Might get closer to the speed I used to devour books at when I was still at Argos and read whilst eating. Trouble is here I feel odd doing that cos I'm sat at my desk not in a cosy staff room. Plus there's the web to read then as well. It should also mean a reduction in the impulse purchases I tend to indulge in simply because I'm wandering round the shops. I'll let you know!

Even the production of cake by m'colleague Danny for no reason other than he felt like it has done little to lighten the mood. Will run out of tablets to keep the smile on my face next week so have made an appointment with the Doctor. Why is it that every time I have a few good days and think now is the time to come off them for good, something like this comes and makes me change my mind again? Perhaps I should just go and get drunk instead. No, perhaps not. At least not until I've got rid of the tablets, if I do.

But, walking around town feeling like I want to just keep walking rather than coming back to the office is not the best way to end the week. So I forced myself in and have written a few e-mails just to keep myself looking busy. Don't think I can keep this up much longer. But what other job would give me the lattitude I sometimes cope with?

Definitely leaving here early today, even if just to nurse the car home! So only 30 mins or so to go.
This is hilarious but also very worrying:

Paranoia paradise
By Chris Horrie
BBC News Online

What makes a good conspiracy theory? What is it about some stories that, however unlikely, convince people that they are true?

French author Thierry Meyssan's book L'Effroyable Imposture (The Appalling Fraud) - which claims that the US government may have "staged" the 11 September attack on the Pentagon - has been condemned for lack of taste. The book has found thousands of readers in France

But it is merely the latest contribution to the mushrooming media "conspiracy industry" - based on the premise that whatever anybody in authority says, the exact opposite is almost certainly the truth. In an age of The X-Files and a lack of trust in the scientific, political and military establishment, there are millions apparently prepared to believe that what they see on the TV news is a complete con and that "the truth" is being suppressed by mysterious and unidentifiable Powers That Be.

Who controls the British Crown... who keeps the metric system down... we do! we do!
Anthem of the Stone Cutters, from The Simpsons


In short, the world seems to be coming down with a bad case of mass paranoia.

There are those, for example, who believe that the Titanic was not sunk but captured by Albanian pirates (why Albanians?), its cargo of gold bullion stolen, its crew and passengers sold to white slave traders and a "fake" wreck created to cover up for this near-perfect super crime.

Less obscure are the numerous theories surrounding the death of John F Kennedy - the most outrageous (and recent) that he was somehow shot by his wife, Jackie.

Then there is the persistent campaign to convince everyone that the moon landing was faked in a TV studio and on location in an Arizona desert in order to boost the popularity of Richard Nixon.

There are entire interest groups with names like The Grassy Knoll and The Conspiracy Continues devoted to "researching" ever more convoluted versions of the Kennedy assassination, many now finessed to entire alternative secret histories of the world dating back to the Garden of Eden.

Conspiracy Planet links to all the familiar conspiracy theories - Elvis is not dead; UFO abductions; tireless efforts of drug companies to suppress cures for diseases, and car companies to prevent the development of the electric car.

Homespun UK conspiracies of recent vintage include the idea that MI6 killed Diana, Princess of Wales, to prevent her marrying a Muslim and endless stuff about British intelligence services being under the thumb of the Russians, the French and - strangely enough - the Swiss.

If all of this seems to be like the script for a particularly duff edition of The Twilight Zone, remember that ex-BBC presenter and Coventry City goalkeeper David Icke preaches that the world is being secretly run by super-intelligent lizards from another planet.

Modern day conspiracy theorising like this may seem harmless to some. But belief in a sinister group of super-secret political puppet masters controlling world events is an old idea, pre-dating even modern science fiction.

Fortunately, the more nutty global conspiracy theories have generally been confined to the fringe.

But not always.

The Nazi regime in Germany based its persecution of Jews on the idea that leaders of the religion acted as a secret governing council of the world, waging a secret war against Germany by cooking up communism, capitalism, jazz, pornography and modern art.

This nonsense had its roots in 19th century France, where Jews were blamed for both the French revolution and the defeat of Napoleon.

A best-selling French "non fiction" book, The French Jews, maintained a Jewish world council based in Gibraltar controlled the world banking system and was plotting the destruction of European civilisation. The book went through 114 editions in a single year, sold millions across Europe and made its author, Edouard Drumont, a leading player in French politics.

Drumont's most extreme followers even believed that Jews had infiltrated the Catholic Church and placed a "Jewish Pope" on the throne of St Peter. Later, Drumont's ravings were perfected by the Russian secret police who faked a complete set of documents "proving" the existence of a "world Jewish conspiracy" and published in millions of copies around the world under the title of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion".

Almost as horrific - on the political left - was the Communist conspiracy theory in 1930s Russia that famines caused by economic mismanagement were being deliberately manufactured by richer, conservative "Kulak" farmers - working conspiratorially with undercover German and British spies. "Spy mania", together with the wild idea that the Kulaks were deliberately starving themselves to death, led to countless executions and further intensification of famine, claiming the lives of millions.

In the 1930s the controversial German psychologist Wilhelm Reich diagnosed belief in conspiracy theories as a form of mass hysteria and as a type of contagious "emotional plague".

The problem is that once the basic idea is accepted that an endlessly devious, super-secret cabal is running events, everything that happens can be seen as further and ever more convincing evidence of conspiracy.

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Not sure what I could say to top that today!

Anyway, having suffered despair this morning over the people prepared to spend the night on the streets of London in order to possibly catch a glimpse of the QM's coffin being taken from palace to hall (and does anyone else remember last year when even Princess Anne said doing that sort of thing was "stupid"?) I had real problems of my own on the way to work when the car started making ghastly rattling noises. No, don't give up on me now, I can't afford to buy a new one! It did at least get me here, and should hopefully hold together to get me home but after that things are less certain. I've sorted out a loan of Richard's for tomorrow as I don't fancy the prospect of a brekdown on the way to the station tomorrow and missing the trip to York.

Hopefully it will be easily (and cheaply) fixable but will no doubt mess up at least one day of our hols next week. Grrrr.

Time for a spot of work, more later!

Thursday, April 04, 2002

What a great day out this has been. The sun has been glorious, the pool car I was using has both sun roof and air con so I've been swapping between the two to keep nice and cool either with or without noise and I got all my deliveries done. Only three things could have made it better: 1 - not spending half the day stuck behind volvo drivers resolutely doing 10-20 mph less than the speed limit whatever the road conditions; 2 - not feeling like I wanted to throw up for the stretch between Leiston and Saxmundham and 3 - an aux input socket on the car stereo. I have one on mine which is how I connect the MD player. Am currently about 1/3 in to the Star Wars radio series (300 minutes all on one disc in 4xLong Play!) and would have rather listened to that than Jimmy Young, but never mind. The rest of Radio 2 is worth that small segment, half of which I was having lunch for anyway.

Actually, make that 4 things. The cafe we used to use in Saxmundham has been taken over, and the new people have changed the menu dropping the pork & apple burger option. Which is a real blow - we'll have to find somewhere else to stop now!

Now I think it is definitely time to get out of here. Joan staff training this evening so I'm going to do a bit of shopping and have a leisurely stab at clearing the study until she gets home. That'll be me done then!
Well, a simple chair delivery took over an hour, but I am trying to be on my best behaviour (even if I was absolutely famished by the time we finally got home) and didn't make a fuss! And no plans made as yet for next week so it still has a chance of being enjoyable.

There was bugger all worth watching on the telly last night, so we finished off the Batman DVD boxset with Batman & Robin. Not the most popular film in the series with the critics (or indeed the cinema audiences) but I like it. George makes a good Bruce in my opinion, and we can always watch Alicia Silverstone in rubber. A-hem. I'm not sure why people didn't like it so much - after all if you look at some of the original comics they are even more ludicrous! That only leaves one film and a couple of tv series discs we haven't watched yet, although we have seen them when they were originally broadcast or off tape so nothing sitting their crying out too loud for attention.

Oh, and there was also an Australian Changing Rooms care of the satellite. Not sure about the style of the show there - the New Zealand version mirrors the UK one almost exactly, but the Ozzies do things a bit differently. Still, the end results were interesting as ever (with ideas that may make their way into our place when I have the energy to pick up a brush again) and the girl who presents it in white shorts has rather nice legs!

Hmm, I seem to be turning into a dirty old man today. Better get on with some work. Actually, am out doing the deliveries mentioned yesterday - but not going out until a bit later as have just ordered a bacon roll from Alberts. Well, one a week won't kill me (unlike some of my colleagues who seem to be indulging every day).

And finally for now, actually saw this Blog listed on the most recent updates bit of the front page after yesterday's waffling went on, so if anyone saw that had a look and has come back again - Hello!

Wednesday, April 03, 2002

Oh, you have to laugh. Today half the papers are still QM and the other half are torn between how people are either paying too much or too little attention to her. I think my favourite quote so far has to be this one from the BBC Suffolk message board: "I'm sick of this nauseating grovel-fest. This is the 21st century, not the 15th. The BBC is doing its listeners no favours by the mass cancellation of the programmes we want to listen to just to whine about a woman that matters only to the feeble-minded and social climbers". Says pretty much everything there and applies just as well to the TV.

Tonight we begin the process of pandering to Joan's family's every whim by taking them a dining chair and coat hangers to borrow as they don't have enough. Why do I get the feeling that Joan and I are just going to get dragged along with what everyone else wants to do over the next week? Perhaps I'm being cynical, but I'm already getting hints along the lines of "they won't want to do" things we've offered as worth seeing etc. And if one single activity gets cancelled or cut short because of the damn dog or Alexander coming home from school I shall probably go a bit mad. Well, I shall at least make sure we take our car so have some control over things. Must make sure people realise this is our holiday as well as theirs.

Hmm, all of that sounds like I was feeling before we went to Canada last year, and that mainly came out alright in the end so perhaps my fears are unfounded. We shall see.

The cds from America finally arrived yesterday. Two new Miles Hunt eps and one from the Wonder Stuff. The Milo ones are labelled as selections from a forthcoming album, but as they are both dated for 2000 and the album itself has yet to materialise I thought I might as well invest in them anyway. The stuffies disc is one they gave away (or possibly sold) at the second batch of reunion gigs last Christmas featuring three tracks from the first wave that didn't make it to the eventual live album and a couple of other previously unheard tracks. Now all I need is time to listen to them! Probably tomorrow evening as Joan is doing a staff training session so will be home late. I wonder how much $35 will translate as on the Credit Card bill.

I have managed to find time to polish off a few more pages on Mr Trevithick and am finding it very interesting indeed. If only I'd though to bring it to work to read between the exciting bits (hmm, when were they?).

Think I will head up to Bury Road Park & Ride this afternoon. Mainly as a simple expedient for getting out of the office (and possibly therefore something to actually do when I get back) but also because they have a Scania demonstrator on loan at the moment which I fancy a nose at. Tomorrow I am having a day out delivering timetable books and, darn it, I'm having to go on my own so nobody will be forcing me to hurry!

Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Well, another fun day at the office nearly over. And I even managed to get a bit of work done as we had some timetable changes come in I needed to thrash into Excel. Not much else to say though. So I won't!
I really must stop expecting to have time to do things I want to do over the weekend! And what a weekend it was too. Got the bedrooms finally finished and suitable for people to look at/sleep in, had a nice meal round ma & pa's while Grandma was up to visit and got thoroughly jarred off by the continuous Queen Mother's dead coverage on the tv. Why do the BBC bother having a 24 hour news channel but then taking over the others when something happens. And when they just spend hours repeating the same information over and over again it really gets on my wick. Although they were saying today that the BBC got 100 complaints about Peter Sissons not wearing a black tie while he was repeating himself but 700 about the continual messing up of the schedules. I think that says what we really think.

Personally, I was more upset by the passing of Barry Took (top comedy scriptwriter in the '50s and '60s and host of The News Quiz on Radio 4 for 25+ years) and the continual chaos in Israel than anything Royal. I don't know what I really believe when it comes to the grand scheme of things, but to be having running battles in what may be the birthplace of Jesus just seems wrong somehow. Still, what do I know?

So here I am back at work wondering what stupid questions people are going to fire at me this week. Mainly from the temp staff on the TraveLine who can't seem to remember stuff from one day to the next. Still, only 4 days of that this week, and with any luck I shall manage to get out of the office for at least one of those. And next week we have booked every day except Tuesday off to be with S&S. Technically, Joan is on a course on Tuesday, which is why I thought I might as well be at work, but it is of course the day they will be burying the Queen Mum, so anything might happen. Probably won't get an official day off for it, but we shall see.

Not sure what we will be doing together next week, I've provided details of loads of nice places to go but expect to be outvoted! They actually arrive on Friday and we are going to see them then as it's also their wedding anniversary but on Saturday we are on a pre-booked trip to York. Having to leave Ipswich at 0652 so leaving home at something like 0615. Urk. I think will have to have an early night on Friday!

More later perhaps.