Month: March 2002

A lazy evening this evening (long overdue) consisting of surfing, reading and generally flopping around and not doing much. I need to recharge a bit.

TFF: a rather good 45 points taking my total to 935 (with a correction for a miscalculation a couple of weeks ago).
Transfers: OUT Pires (ouch!), IN Ljunberg and OUT Gray, IN Henchoz. Considered transferring Ricketts out, but can’t afford anyone better.

Mock exam at college tonight, which went fairly well.
Followed by beer with Paul F and Aris, including a couple of excellent Grolschs at W2 – I’m very tempted to make that my local again.

They think it’s all over…. Kenneth Wolstenholme, RIP.

I can’t believe that so many people have come here seeking pictures of the car crash that killed Ben Hollioake. It seems sick to me.
But are we becoming inured to such images? As we look through both traditional and online media almost every day, it seems that hardly a moment goes by when we do not see such an image. The most striking example is the terrorist attacks of September 11th – there are photos of the burning towers everywhere, and yet within those towers, people were trapped, dying and dead. Are we becoming desensitized? Isn’t this a bad thing?
Other examples: the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales; the aftermath of any one of the recent bomb attacks in Israel; images of bodies lying in the streets and dust in Afghanistan. I’m not saying that we should not see these things, but are they now treated with a ghoulishness that belittles the losses that the images represent?

Worrying news for Brighton fans – during the disappointing 2-2 draw with Notts County on Saturday, star striker Bobby Zamora was injured, and it looks like he’ll be out for a fortnight – a fairly crucial fortnight in Brighton’s promotion battle. Gah!

Well, at long last, I’ve relaunched my work website – www.croftway.co.uk. It is still very much a work in progress – I need to add more images to break up the text, and I’ve still to sort out the old redundant pages that are lurking about on the server that Google and some other search engines still link to.
But I’d like your feedback. Take a look, and if you have something useful to say, plonk it in the comments here.

Lunch with Sarah in the Hogshead, peoplewatching from the window overlooking South Street, followed by shopping at MVC (we both escaped empty handed), Oddbins (new case of beer) and Waterstones (three new paperbacks for me, and Sarah got some bits and pieces too).
Outside Waterstones, a couple of people seemed to be taking turns to lie in the middle of the pavement, as if they had collapsed there, whilst the other looked on from a discreet distance. They were both goths, clearly far too heavily influenced by Marilyn Manson to merit much respect in Chichester. The reaction of passers by was interesting – most clearly thought that the person lying there was merely drunk and had chosen to pass out in an inconvenient spot. I could see the whole thing from the bookshop, and I didn’t see anybody stop to help. One person did ask the assistant in the store if he thought that they should call an ambulance, but interestingly they did this without actually checking the condition of the person on the pavement. As for the assistant, I think he just found it slightly amusing, heading towards irritating, and was on the point of going out and asking them to move on. But it also provided a bit of light relief in his afternoon of credit card swiping and shelf rearrangement.
It’s been a beautiful day. My stroll down to Waitrose and back was bathed in pleasant warm sunshine, although there is a slight chill in the breeze. The daffodils are in full flower, and the birds are singing (you can hear a nest of chicks squealing as you cross the bridge over the Avenue de Chartres, although I couldn’t quite see which branch the nest was in) – I think it is safe to say that spring is truly here (cue: snow and howling gale).

Today is Palm Sunday.
um. Just thought I’d let you know.

UPDATE: actually, I’ve remembered what I was going to say about Palm Sunday. The first time I went to Barcelona, I was there during the run up to Palm Sunday. Like all Spaniards (got to be careful here – the Catalan people are very proud and independent and don’t like being lumped together with the rest of Spain, but I hope in this instance they can forgive me and that I won’t be firebombed by some separatist militants), the Barcelonetas like nothing more than a good parade, especially on religious festivals. It’s a shame I wasn’t there for the actual parade (there was one on when I went to the city for the second time, but the crowds were so enormous you could barely get close enough to see what was going on, and I was also tending to a girlfriend who was feeling a bit flaky). But I did get to see the special palm market on Rambla Catalunya, north of Plaça de Catalunya – a street full of stalls selling dried palm fronds, bleached to parchment white by the sun and towering six or eight feet above the heads of the purchasers. It makes an amazing sight – I’ve got some photos somewhere which I’ll hunt out and scan up if I get time.

I’ve woken in a shockingly good mood today, for no other reason than the sun is shining, I’ve some good music on (courtesy of Alicia Keys), a fresh cup of coffee is by my side and I’ve just enjoyed a couple of bagels with poached egg. Sunday mornings were meant to be like this. However, the day ahead is dominated by a massive amount of college homework. Thankfully, some of it is the sort I can carry to the park and do there.