Bloody Halloween!

(This is one of the few times that I will blow my top on this blog)

Someone is making a killing here. Whether it is pumpkin conglomerates in Illinois or plastic toy factories in Southern China, the emergence of Halloween as a reason to spend your hard earned cash on a completely baseless festival is worrying. Just like Mother’s/Father’s day or Valentine’s, an obscure European festival has been hijacked turned into something far more than it should have been.

Shops are filled with gaudy toys (real tatty crap) and other trinkets, little kids knock on your door demanding cash (work you feral buggers) and nigger kids decide to throw eggs at anything they can (I hope you starve one day).

Halloween is s**t! Really, I have never seen something so trite, even worse than these other ‘holidays’ which at least has the veneer of love (expressed in by an overpriced rose or a lousy card). Halloween has no positive attributes whatsoever. From the amount of food that is thrown out (how many of those pumpkins were used to actually make food rather than grotty masks) to the sheer tenacity of raising a generation of children who think it is perfectly normal to knock on doors and beg for money (work-shy little b******s).

The whole ‘event’ is a pile of crap that is the final p**s take in the FTSE100’s quest for my hard earned money. I do not want to spend my free time having to chase away someone else’s children off my property, nor do I want to have to clean up the filth left by those egg throwing hooligans. I certainly do not need to buy, every year fake devil’s tridents or awful witch’s hats. And I like to eat my eggs, cooked and on a plate. I do not like seeing foxes roam around the city at 3am licking yolk off the pavements.

Halloween actually has a fascinating history that has been completely lost in the flood of cash registers. It exists as there is a need for companies around the UK to pick up the nation’s spending. Unlike other countries there is no Thanksgiving (N. America), Diwali (India and surrounding area) or Mid-Autumn Festival (most of East Asia). After summer, there is a lull in what we as a nation spend, as people try to save up for Christmas and are really trying to get over the annihilation that the summer holiday has done to most family’s wallets. Especially as there are no public holidays between the end of summer and the Xmas period, there is a need for companies to keep making money. Hence Halloween, the most trumped up holiday since Valentine Day’s cheap attempt to kick start consumer spending after the Christmas binge.

The whole thing makes me sick. Now pass me the hollowed out pumpkin mask, I need a place to puke up…

London Diary (3)

Text Messages. SMS. Mobile phones. Whatever, she never liked them. Despite the fact they had their uses, she never liked sending texts out as a rule. They were sloppy, like e-mails, but only shorter. The never got to the point and they still required a follow up call afterwards.

‘Damn,’ she thought, ‘why did I send “him” the mass text?’

It was only a mass SMS to all the contacts in her phone to tell them of her new number. She was not happy at the turn of events. There was a reply. From ‘him’. She didn’t mean to contact ‘him’, but that is the problem with mobile phones, you never get round to updating and deleting the numbers of people you don’t really want to contact anymore.

She sent a reply far too quickly, and then regretted it. ‘Damn’ she thought, but secretly inside of her, she was happy. It was contact, of a sort. And despite the fact that ‘he’ had not contacted her for months, she was pleased to hear from ‘him’. But she was still wary. She knew of ‘his’ games and more to the point, ‘his’ whims.

‘Damn, why did I reply so quickly to “his” text?’

Beep-beep.

Another text message from him. She looked at her phone. ‘Sod it,’ she thought, ‘let “him” wait.’

She sank slowly back into bed and smiled. It was a petty revenge, but it was a nice to think that ‘he’ was waiting for a reply. And with that thought, she drifted slowly to sleep.

Bicycle Diaries (Autumn/Winter ‘09)

Earlier this Autumn, I told about the repairs I had to do to my bike. Well, I had to do a lot more recently. On Saturday I was biking away when ‘pop’ went my rear wheel. It was going for a while anyhow, and it finally went. Luckily I got into work on time but it meant I was without a bike for three days – and so I faced the torture of public transport for that time.

Now, I have spent a pretty penny on this bicycle, but considering that I have got a good 13 months out of it, I am happy to do so. New rear tyre, inner tubing, wheel, chain and casstte. Hopefully the repairs I have made will last another year and the workmanship seems good. The bike looks a bit funky, half of it is old, half of it brand new, but it feels great to ride. And considering the mileage I get out of it, if it lasts two months without any incident, then I would have easily made up what I would have spent on petrol.

The economics of transport…

‘Baby on Board’

It is not often that public transport makes you smile.

But yesterday, I read that a woman had given birth on a bus last week! Apparently, baby ‘Dennis’ is the first child to have been born on London’s buses! Congratulations to all concerned and most importantly, thank goodness the baby was born without any complications and that both mother and child are doing well. I think the driver did a sterling job. London may be a harsh city, but there is still a lot of compassion left in this town…

Article – click to read!

The video of mother and baby, both looking very healthy!

My Sassy Girl – the coolest love story ever?

I love Korean films. Fact, they are so warped, that they will entice and intoxicate the nearest viewer. One film I have recently seen, is the 2001 hit, My Sassy Girl. A fantastic film, that will make you laugh, will make you sigh and might even make you cry. Man, I am a big softy…

Plus, with some of the coolest moments in film, this is one movie I could watch again and again. And to think this is an eight year old film! All right, you want to see a cool part of the film, then click here and move the cursor to the one minute mark. Start playing and watch the rest of the vid, it will crack you up!

The film has been remade twice. Once by the American’s and another by the Indian’s. Both kind of flopped. I have seen the Indian version, and it is simply not as good as the original, although the story is virtually identical. I don’t know why, but I think that the combination of a director who really loved the story and great acting made ‘My Sassy Girl’ one of Korea’ biggest hits.

But to all those regular travellers on public transport – beware of who you pick up…

Smile

It is something that I have not done often recently. That is a shame. There is no reason no to smile, I am healthy, not bankrupt and the sun is shining. Yet, I am not smiling. Especially Saturday, I believe I spent the whole day not smiling. Lost in a cloud of my own thoughts. And yet, I should get smiling again. I will do. I promise. But today is not a day for grinning innately..

Cinematic

Earlier this week I stopped off in town for the day ad did something that I have not done for a long time. Spent a day at the movies. The London Film Festival was in town so for lunch I watched on of its offerings, then headed to the Prince Charles for a late matinee before sauntering off to Trafalgar Square for a late night show in the open. The last of these, the freebie was the best one of the lot, the other two films being…’interesting’…but not really entertaining.

But it was the outdoor film that I really liked. It took a look at London’s transport from 1896 right up until the present day and it was fascinating to see how much and how little has changed in London over the past 100 years or so. And the Square was crowded with people, all trying to get a glimpse of what London had to offer. A lot of the time, I think the Festival in London can make some great choices, and this is one of them. Long may the freebie screenings in the Square continue, and thank goodness the weather held!

London Diary (2)

‘M’ had enough, so he switched off his phone. Enough of the lies, enough of the sulking around in the background. All he wanted was something normal, without any hang-ups, but as always he realised, there was always hang-ups involved, no matter how simple you try to make it. And that was the problem, no matter how well adjusted a person might seem, there was always something beneath the surface, that glossy outlook on the world that when scratched would unleash the complexities of the soul.

A cup of coffee was needed, hell if he had not been tee-total all of these years, a drink would have sufficed. After that accident, he realised he needed help. ‘M’ managed to turn his life around, but why couldn’t she? Was it really that hard to see the self destructive path that he had set herself on? The kettle boiled, and he quickly poured a cup. He despised coffee, but it was ’something’ to put down his throat. The hot liquid burnt his lips, but somehow that no longer mattered anymore…

Anniversaries

Yesterday marked eight years. Eight years, I cannot believe that this length of time has passed. Sometimes you do not realise that time is passing by so fast, and for me, I was just a friend, I sometimes forgot. But for your parents, the pain must have been unbearable. Eight years, everyday remembering the gap where you once were in their lives. I hate to say this, but if I had not met your father the other day at the shops, I would not have realised the significance of October 21st, such is my own, now so-called busy life. But yesterday was eight years since you passed away and I remember that dreadful day in the hospital. How time has flown for me, but how time has stood still for others.

We all die, that is a fact. Sometimes, the best of us are taken away at a young age, sometimes he most unworthy lead a long and fruitful life. Life is an unfair struggle. I do not know what happens in the afterlife, but I hope there is no reincarnation, as I would not want to come back to this Earth. Unfortunately, at a young age, I have experienced loss and now, a few years later, the loss still feels to raw to talk about properly. Maybe one day I will begin to deal with it properly. But for now, a wave of bitterness still passes over me everytime I think about October 21st.

Wherever you are, rest in peace.

A cup of chai

One of the infinite pleasures of travelling through India is the tea. I love tea, fact. None of this cappuccino crap or bucket sized cups of expresso that seem to swill down the throats of westerners, but a lovely cup of tea will refresh me anytime of the day. I’ll drink it anyhow or anyway, but if I have a preference, it is for my tea to be unsweetened, and if it is a black tea, then for it to have just a dash of milk, although I will also happily drink black tea without the moo juice.

However, in India, tea is very much of the spiced, sweetened and milky variety. And you know what, I love it! Wherever I go for Rs2 or Rs3 a Chai Wallah will serve up his own special brew. I do not need to be scared of dirty water or milk as everything is boiled to achieve the perfect brew. In the morning, it kick starts my day, in the heat of the sun, it cools and refreshes me, and if I need a quick pick-me-up before I head on board a long bus journey, it is a cup of tea that will refresh beyond belief. Thank goodness for this little miracle on India’s roads. And when it is served in a clay cup, you can have the extra satisfaction of throwing your finished cup to the ground – the ultimate in biodegradability! Masters of Chai, long may you continue to refresh the nation!