are the stars out tonight?

life and stuff

9.11.06
up the wall

i am learning to drive, which is really something i never thought would happen. years of terrifying 'clunk click every trip' and 'kill your speed not a child' ads scared me to a point where i didn't even want to be a passenger in a car for several years. and for a long time, my nightmares revolved around crashing or stalling cars.

fortunately, my desire to continue to be employed massively outweighs my fear of driving. and it has become very necessary for me to learn. it does feel pretty ridiculous to have got to 25 and not to be able to drive. it is one of those skills that i suspect everyone ought to have.

so here i am, two lessons in, and quite enjoying it. it still freaks me out a bit every time i think about it, but when i'm actually behind the wheel, i feel ok. remarkably ok.

and my instructor asked me if i'd just turned 17. which was nice.


5.11.06
nostalgiafest '06

in a weirdly retro style, i am blogging (hungover) from langwith computer room. the very room in which i used to regularly post (hungover/drunk/whatever), when i was at uni. i'm in york for a flying visit, and i couldn't resist the urge to re-create my misspent youth.

coming back to york is terrific, actually. it's funny because coming in on the train i felt exactly the way i used to when i got into king's cross when i was living up here. it does feel like coming home in a wonderful sort of way, and i'm sorry i've not been up for so long, and that it was really only chance that brought me back here in the first place.

i was in sheffield for the sheffield doc fest, which was, um, thought provoking. i managed to see seven documentaries in total, over a day and a half. they ranged from the sublime, to the ridiculous, but i don't feel like i saw a dud. perhaps the most disappointing film was black gold, which i wanted to be more of a polemic, than a rather straight depiction of the coffee industry.

more when i get back to london, i should think...