Deliverance

A rather odd journey home last night, sharing a carriage with a family that looked to be missing a few chromosomes. Not the politest thing to make fun of others' misfortunes, but these people were so extraordinary...

I made my way to a free seat then looked at the people sitting opposite me. My heart sank. The young (16?) boy looked just like the duelling banjo kid from 'Deliverance'. Really. The mother was a red-faced ball and the father had the look of someone who would pick a fight with just about anyone. I sat there, engaged in my iPod, trying not to make eye contact and hoping, as they were making such a big deal of having a conversation, that they'd get off soon. They didn't. I spent the whole of my Northern Line journey opposite them. The train was full anyway, so there was nowhere else to go anyway. When the male got off at Highgate the other two just stared blankly at me. When they were out of the tunnel, however, they produced their mobile phone and the boy then made several calls, shouting about where they were. As far as I could tell, they seemed to be phoning the same people up repeatedly. As we finally approached High Barnet, he started singing. His mother joined in. I made eye contact for about 2 seconds, but could see it would only end in trouble.

Frustration

A very early start this morning, as a prelude to the important stuff at work today.

I started with the ADBS, featuring Amy Lame' and David Kuo. Very very good.

For a change, my iPod wasn't tuned into my mood, and I was forced to fast-forward several times in the 'Shuffle All' playlist. I forgot the tracks I skipped, although Queen featured heavily. Perhaps On-The-Go would have been better...

Intro + Ulisse - PFM,
This is the Way - Devendra Banhart,
Castle In The Clouds - Gong,
Little By Little - Oasis,
More Fool Me - Genesis,
In My Place - Coldplay,
Nucleogenesis - Vangelis,
Tour de France - Kraftwerk,
Aren't You The Girl - Tim Buckley,
Long Distance Runaround - Yes.

After the latter, I abandoned 'Shuffle' and basked in the glory of The Fish, Mood For A Day and the superb Heart of the Sunrise. A couple of years ago I spent a couple of days recording a tape of a Yes concert from BBC Radio 1 (!) and lovingly splitting it up into MP3 tracks in preparation for making a CD. At some point I had a rush of blood to the head and managed to delete all the files before I could burn the CD, and I have never got round to doing it again. It was a great gig...

T - 4; M -3; D - 3. Travelling at 7am on the Tube is a bit strange, though, and a bit disconcerting.

Mistaken for an American

I was on my way home from work to the Tube station, minding my own business and listening to my iPod, when an elderly man who had been walking in front of me turned around and asked if I was an American...

'I beg your pardon'
'Are you an American; you're very tall' (I'm about 6'3")
'Erm, no, I'm British'
'You just look American'
'Oh'
'They're very big aren't they?'
'Some are' - trying not to laugh - 'But I find that, in general, Scandanavians can be quite tall'
'Ah yes, but I always think of Americans as being big and tall'
'Well, some are...'
'Their cars are really big'
'Yes, I suppose so'
'You're very big'
'Well I'm not extraordinarily big'
'As big as an American'
...

The conversation then turned to a hospital appointment he'd just been to, and his journey home. We parted amicably and I returned to the confines of my iPod.