// June 2008
It’s a Small World
So, we found our new house. Needs a bit of work, admittedly (the painting is in progress) but it’s big and its airy and it has lots of wooden floors - which possibly makes our new living room my dream space.
Our first visit post-contract signing involved a certain amount of “okay, need to deal with that” and removal of clutter, and it was then I discovered the (empty) box of an M&S Easter egg on top of my bedroom cupboard. A Dalek Easter egg no less.
“Ho-ho!” I thought, “We’ve had fans!” And I must say I grinned slightly as I presented this finding to Chris and my Aunt. “It was meant to be!” I proclaimed.
And then, on sorting through the kitchen, aforementioned Aunt discovered a pinny in one of the drawers which seemed even more bizarre. White it was, but with a large TARDIS emblazoned across it. And another one saying “Stuff being princess, I want to be Queen”.
Gay fans then. Definitely home.
Later I found myself building a pile of post for the previous occupants too, thinking “I’ll get rid of that later” and then carried on moving in.
And then a little later there was a chance encounter with a neighbour outside the front door. “The guys who lived there before moved to Australia,” she confided. We smiled and agreed that it was a nice plan, and then we thought no more of it.
Until… well, do you know those moments when you’re not even thinking of something, but suddenly different thoughts rush forwards to occupy the mental space and combine into a sudden realisation? Suddenly it all linked: Who’ers, Gayers, Australia-ers. I knew someone who ticked those boxes and now I came to think of it his surname was one of those on the post I’d sorted.
On returning to the old flat I dug out the Mac and messaged an occasional drinking buddy of mine on Facebook. “Here, Giles” I asked, “You didn’t live at ******* did you?”
Turns out he did. Of all the places in London Chris and I could have chosen to live, it turns out to be the home of a gay, Who-loving friend of mine who has not long vacated the property and I didn’t even know was so local to me. As far as coincidences go I think that’s pretty impressive.
(The move, incidentally, is now complete. It was hellish. I hurt all over and feel thoroughly drained and ill, but we are, at least, in. Now we just have to get it sorted in time to have a housewarming or we’ll never hear the end of it.)
Posted on June 24, 2008 | Filed Under My So-Called Life | 0 Comments
Russell The Davies, OBE
So, the man himself, Russell T. Davies, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Now inevitably there’s a certain amount of grumbling about the honours list anyway, and there’s a certain amount of muttering along the lines of “well, he’s only brought back Doctor Who, how does that qualify him for an honour?” but I think he more than deserves this award for service to television and culture over the last twenty-odd years.
Who notwithstanding, he’s the creator of the groundbreaking series Queer as Folk which I had the pleasure of watching again recently and, with the shock value of some of its scenes long since gone, found I was just blown away by the writing. The warmth and the humour and - frankly - brilliant characterisation made me fall in love with it all over again. It’s a stunning bit of writing and well worth a re-viewing if you get the chance.
And then there’s its cultural impact which still resonates to this day.
Then there’s the quality of his other work. I have yet to see many of his other series, but two of his early works “Dark Season” and “Century Falls” had me gripped by Children’s BBC when technically I was way outgrowing it. The former clearly showed he wanted to write Doctor Who, but both also proved that kids could easily handle, nay love, proper drama at a time when the industry believed it was going out of fashion.
If anything I think its these two series that made me realise I wanted to write too.
He’s never written down to kids this one - look at “the Flashing Blade” and “Breakfast Serials” too for further proof - and I do believe that’s vitally important.
His New Doctor Who Adventures novel “Damaged Goods” is something I’ve also picked up again recently and that too is a brilliant - if very dark and, at times, harrowing - read, but also contains seeds that will be familiar to any New Series fans. (Council Estate, with sassy Girl, dark Time Lord, gays a go-go, war machine from an unseen war appearing on earth and so on…)
To see Russell talk about television is too be overawed by his intelligence, his rigour and - above all - his amazing enthusiasm for the medium. It’s always heady stuff and fires me up every time.
And then he’s effectively created a proper Welsh television industry, turning it from a small regional operation into a major powerhouse of drama. And if that doesn’t deserve an OBE I don’t know what does.
The man’s, frankly, brilliant and - despite my occasional problems with his plot decisions on Who - I love him to bits. Well done Russell, it’s an award I think is richly deserved.
Posted on June 14, 2008 | Filed Under Film and Television, The World we Live In | 1 Comment
That’s Probably Not What They Mean…
I was in EvilTescoTM just now and whilst idly perusing the cleaning products - well it beats working - I was deeply amused by the name of one of their packs of cleaning wipes.
In fact I involuntarily let out a bark of a laugh which made me quite glad no-one else was around.
“TWO THICK MOPPETS” it said.
My mind immediately wandered to G-A-Y for some reason.
Posted on June 6, 2008 | Filed Under My So-Called Life | 1 Comment
The Glass is Half Empty
This morning I became aware (again, if I’m totally honest) that I really am a glass half empty type of person.
I noticed over the last couple of days that I have been tripping over the bottoms of my jeans. Not in a major way, mind, just finding that they catch my heel occasionally.
And, after a day or so of this, I have finally realized that the problem is they are sliding down because there is now, without a belt, quite a sizeable gap between my waist and that of the jeans.
Now, you’d have thought that - for someone as obsessed with their weight as I am - I could take this as a good thing, a sign that I am well on the way to becoming a buff beach-bronzed Adonis and that maybe I could give myself a pat on the back and adjust my self-image accordingly, wouldn’t you?
But no. My first thought was “oh, bloody hell - I have to buy more sodding jeans”.
On Planet Rob, it seems, every silver lining has a cloud.
Posted on June 2, 2008 | Filed Under Health and Fitness, My So-Called Life | 1 Comment
Closed Language Systems
A closed language system is an interesting thing. You almost certainly use one yourself: it’s basically the phenomenon whereby people in a social group somehow understand each other despite the fact that what they’re saying doesn’t actually *mean* anything and yet somehow (and often against all the odds) you figure out rapidly what that person means.
Case in point - and my aunt really is a master of this sort of statement - “oh, can you go and get me the thingy”.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I have stared blankly at her and tried to figure out what the thing could possibly be, and yet somehow I usually arrive at the right decision and respond accordingly.
Of course, you could sit there and go “well, if she’s about to whisk eggs then she’d logically want you to get the egg whisk” but that’s not quite it. Because my aunt’s mental processes are very rarely routed in whatever’s happening at the time, the context is never immediately apparent. She could just as easily want me to get a screwdriver or an iPod or whatever.
It’s quite an art.
This morning my flatmate demonstrated a knowledge of me which indicates that we too have a genuinely closed language system. Prior to leaving for work he had cause - from a completely different room in the house - to decode a vocalisation of mine which showed he had precisely located the likely events which would lead me to make such a noise.
The noise in question - let loose as I rummaged in my bag looking for my work door pass - can only be expressed in letters as “wuh-hurghh!”
After which there was a noticeable flurry of activity and pause, after which a voice drifted along the hallway from the front room with the simple enquiry: “spider?”
He was spot on.
It seems spider season has begun. Gah!
Posted on June 2, 2008 | Filed Under My So-Called Life, The World we Live In | 0 Comments