alias_sqbr

So..I was going to write about the nice evening I had out in the city with my shiny shiny first paycheck. But then...

I was just leaving the train station to walk home when I heard loud whooping. I realised it was coming from a speeding car...just as it hit the powerpole at the front of the station! (about 100m away) Which then fell over! Onto the car! Bringing down a whole bunch of cabling in a giant shower of sparks!

I stood there for a while going OMG until other people's movements prompted me to check on the driver(*), who seemed fine in an angry shouty sort of way. When someone asked if the police had been called it was pointed out they were two cars away (traffic had stopped at this point), possibly not a coincidence.

A policeman came out and started shouting "YOU, STAY IN THE CAR. YOU, STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR". The woman trying to calm down the guy in the car protested until the policeman pointed out that there were live power lines hanging at about head height onto and around the car.

At this point I decided it was probably a good idea to go home :)

(*)See, mandragora2003, I wasn't kidding when I said I'd suck in an emergency

Watching ABC on a wednesday, when they used to show The Katherine Tate show (here is a clip of a sketch of her with David Tennant as Dr Who)..and there's an ad for and episode of Dr Who with Katherine Tate in it.

Also, have updated Hapless with a comic I made aggggges ago.

So, first my ex I hadn't spoken to since early 1999 decides to send me back my copy of LOTR for no apparent reason.
Then a friend I had a falling out with in 1999 and hadn't really spoken to since appears suddenly on livejournal causing some small measure of Drama (this is a flocked post, sorry)
Then I go to my "Class of 96" reunion
Then I bump into said '98 ex on the train.
And today I bumped into someone I haven't seen since 1998 (we had classes together, apparently. I must admit I do not remember her, but it was nice chatting anyway)

It's like this wacky late-90s nostalgia trip that refuses to end. I also bumped into my high school drama teacher and walk over my year 11 physics teachers name every time I check the toilets (both at work) but they both happened at sufficient remove from the others not to weird me out.

And yes, I realise it's probably just selective observation or whatever, it's still a little surreal :P

I visited my family yesterday. The main reason was to give them a copy of my thesis (they were all suitably impresed by it's weighty unreadableness) but also to pick up an unlabelled and unexpected package addressed to me at their address (where I haven't lived for over 5 years)

Had lots of fun chatting to people, explained the cold war to my 10 year old brother Theo (who was vaguely aware of it: was it between China and Russia maybe? And what was communism anyway?) Even my 19 year old sister couldn't remember it, I suppose none of you munchkins do. How odd. Poor old grandma is still not the same after her illness, but much better than she was. Also played basketball (!!), thankfully Theo still hasn't hit the "better than Sophie at all things physical" barrier Michael did at around his age. Anyway, just as I was leaving, mum remembered the package, so I opened it. Inside was... a copy of the Lord of the Rings, and nothing else.

Now some of you will have heard me talk about this book. The copy of LOTR my mum got for me for my 17th or so birthday, and wrote a nice little message in. The book I lent to my boyfriend at the time, the boyfriend who the last time I saw him after we broke up, specifically for returning books we had borrowed, "forgot" my book. The book I have mourned with bitterness for seven years(*).

I and mum decided he must have finally finished reading it, he never was a very good reader.

Oh, and I gave it to Theo, since I already have a copy :)

(*)Not that I wasn't bitter about other things too.