There's nobody here but us chickens.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Weather

Weather. Weather. Weather. Blooming weather.

That weather.

The weather thing.

Everywhere I go, weather.

(Weather weather - watch the meaning bleed from the word as it becomes overused, weather, weather. It's what Chris Moulin calls jamais vu, the subjective experience of lack of recognition for a familiar item, that resembles but may not be equivalent to semantic satiation, an objective decrease in the ability to judge as meaningful a repeatedly presented word.)

I've been to 3 countries on 3 continents in the last 3 weeks. On every one, weather.

China: Very hot. Very sticky. And lots of rain. Had to spend days ducking into and out of the heat into air conditioned shops + museums, or when desperate climb into icecream freezers or the path of a disapproving gaze from a distinguished posh lady. Freezes the blood that.
Australia: Damp. Very very wet, and damp and dank, and damp. Spent the time hiding from thunderstorms or tumbledrying my drenched trousers, shivering in an unheated bedroom and drinking to keep the heat in. Come back China, all is forgiven! Heat is great.
UK: Hot and sticky, close and windless. Stuck in the office feeding moisture into the padding of my chair via the conduit of my glistening shirt. How I long for the cool tempuratures of Sydney. That was idyllic, no?

In other news of my trip...gah, no, weather, phew, cor, weather, end.


PS Chris does a lot more stuff on deja vu/deja vecu, and there's a nice article about it here.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Ketchup

Catchup. Some of you may have been watching the World Cup of Soccer (this is a sporting event quite popular in some parts of the world for an Aussie rules footie knock-off); just to say that
a) England aren't in it any more - eject your ire in the comments below
b) The last 2 matches (Fra-Bra + Ger-Ita) were really rather good; disagree in comments below
c) The last of my rare gambling flutters flitted into an open flame and went poof, with Ukraine going out miserably. I blame Duncan; blame Duncan in comments below.

Also, I am going to be away for a few weeks in 3 top cities - Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney, so do throw me any advice/luck that occurs to you.

Finally, I (finally) got confirmation of my PhD this week. Old news really, but hey.